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Cumberland Blood: Champ Ferguson's Civil War. By Thomas D. Mays. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, c. 2008. Pp. [xiv], 194. $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8093-2860-4.)
In this book, Thomas D. Mays explores the life of Champ Ferguson, a Confederate sympathizer who led an independent guerrilla unit that operated on die Kentucky-Tennessee border during the Civil War. Born in Clinton County, Kentucky, in 1821, Ferguson had become a rising yeoman farmer and slaveholder by the 1850s. Having an economic stake in the preservation of slavery, Ferguson embraced the Confederate cause in 1861. Shortly thereafter, he became the leader of a guerrilla outfit. Over the next four years, Ferguson and his band gained notoriety for their brutality against Unionists. Unwilling to surrender after Confederate defeat in April 1865, Ferguson continued...