Owensboro Courthouse Burned
Owensboro, Daviess County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Courthouse Burned. Twenty-two Kentucky courthouses were burned during Civil War, nineteen in last fifteen months: twelve by Confederates, eight by guerrillas, two by Union accident. See map on reverse side. Jan. 4, 1865, the courthouse at Owensboro, occupied by Union troops, was burned by guerrillas. The records of all county offices saved by the respective officers. Erected October 22, 1964. For more information, see ExploreKYHistory: Courthouse Burned
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
When guerrillas set fire to the Union-occupied courthouse at Owensboro on January 4, 1865, it was one of twenty-two Kentucky courthouses destroyed during the Civil War—nineteen of them in the war's final fifteen months. County officers managed to save the records of all their offices from the blaze. The pattern reflected a war that in Kentucky was fought as much by raiders and irregulars as by armies.
Why it matters
The wave of courthouse burnings reveals how the Civil War tore at the everyday machinery of local government in a divided border state, where guerrilla violence blurred the line between soldier and outlaw.
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Nearby & related markers
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