Civil War
Posted on 01. Feb, 2012 by admin in What’s on
The start of the American civil war, the bloodiest conflict in US history, marked its 150th anniversary last year. This year the spotlight is on the anniversary of major battles.
The fighting in Kentucky in 1862 played a massive role in the outcome of the war; with the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, proving almost as key as the mammoth fight at Gettysburg, according to some observers.
To mark the anniversary, Louisville hosts the special civil war exhibition at the award-winning Frazier Museum on the renaissant Museum Row.
Unlike most civil war exhibits, however, the Louisville focus is not on the fighting, but on the social and political effects, in Kentucky.
As the blurb puts it: “Unlike many other Civil War studies that tend to focus on the battlefield chronology, the 3,800sq ft exhibition delves into the heart-wrenching and personal stories of the nationwide conflict that forever severed once close-knit relationships here in Kentucky.”
Entitled My Brother, My Enemy, the display sums up the tragedy of the civil war in Kentucky, a border state nominally neutral in the conflict, it being split almost 50-50 for the South or for the North. The battle lines came down similarly within families, too, often pitting brother against brother and sometimes father.
“The war was rough on Kentucky,” explains the exhibit’s curator Kelly Wilkerson on the website. “People literally woke up one morning and were living in enemy territory– Kentucky was treated like a traitor by both sides. No one could be trusted.”
One thing you can trust: the Frazier puts on a good show.
Exhibition runs until April 8 2012
Mill Springs Battle
Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by admin in What’s on
It’s a big year for history in Ken
tucky, with the 150th anniversaries of key American civil war battles fought in the state in 1862.
First up was the Battle of Middle Creek, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, on January 10, then the Battle of Mill Springs, celebrated this month with re-enactments on January 21 and 22. Spectacular large-scale re-enactments are billed for the real biggie, the Battle of Perryville, on October 8, one of the most strategically decisive, though much lesser-known, battles in the bloody four-year-long conflict.
Kentucky tried to be neutral in the war, the state split between Northern and Southern sentiment; officially the state sent no troops to either side. Unofficially, volunteers streamed into both armies. Unfortunate, too, was the fact Kentucky was too big a prize, for food, supplies and volunteers, to be neutral. It was also hugely strategic, even President Lincoln said: “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”
The Confederates invaded in autumn 1861, not too successfully. Kentucky asked the North for help and sided with the Union.
Mill Springs was fought on January 19, between a relatively small force of Confederates and a larger advancing Union army from the North-west. They clashed at Mill Springs, by the present day town of Nancy in Pulaski County, eastern Kentucky, in the beautiful Cumberland Lakes region. Control this area and you control access to Tennessee, the south’s soft underbelly
The North won, routing 5,000-6,000 rebels, sending them scuttling back across the wide Cumberland river to Tennessee, the first major Union victory of the war. Casualties were light, given the slaughter of other battles, with only 39 Union men dead compared to 125 Confederates. However, the rebel defensive line in Kentucky was smashed, and the Confederates left behind 12 artillery pieces, 150 wagons, more than 1,000 horses and mules, and all of their dead and wounded. Not good PR.
The biggest casualty of the battle, some say, was General Crittenden, the Confederate general who was reportedly drunk during the fighting and removed to a desk job afterwards. We’d say the biggest casualty was Confederate Zollicoffer, a rather unlucky man, in war and death. He was killed in the battle after straying too near the Union line; remembered by a white oak tree on the battlefield; which then got destroyed by lightning.
KaLightoscope Christmas
Posted on 30. Nov, 2011 by admin in Uncategorized, What’s on
Christmas isn’t exactly a small celebration for Americans, and definitely not for the likes of Louisville locals; a plethora of festivals and attractions set up each holiday luring in revellers for some traditional festive fun.
Latest, and arguably the best among them, is the KaLightoscope festival at the venerable Galt House Hotel which sits on the Ohio River right smack bang in the centre of downtown on Main.
It’s only the second year for KaLightoscope, but the event has been an unrivalled success, last year attracting 80,000 people with its Xmas displays. It’s the first show of its type in the US, organisers claim, but they expect it to be copied elsewhere, so successful has it been.
Visitors will be greeted by Santa and his army of elves before a tour of the attractions and stalls, such as the Elf Village, the Snow Fairy Village, a castle, and even Gingerbread houses (at the time of going to press it is unsure if they are actually made of gingerbread – but the hotel does run a fabled gingerbread competition).
But it’s the KaLightoscope hall which awes visitors, a glowing festival of light, larger than life sculptures, such as huge lanterns and mammoth oversize ornaments which wow both kids and parents alike, all set up in a darkened hall for maximum effect. (For adults partial to bright light, bring some sunglasses!)
Each oversize light exhibit is built by Chinese engineers, drawing on ancient Chinese folk tradition but westernising the concept with a Christmas theme.
Say the organisers: “Chinese artisans from Zigong, China have carefully crafted each sculpture by hand. Made of sheer, painted fabrics, each towering sculpture is enhanced by glowing light, colour, and an imaginative setting.”
Check out the huge Santas riding through the air of the sleds and surfboards, the Kentucky Derby Christmas, of course, and the nativity exhibit featuring oversize angels, wise men and shepherds.
The tour ends in the Mistletoe Marketplace where visitors can look at photos, shop for Christmas items and get some hot cocoa and sweets.
Christmas at The Galt House runs daily (closed Christmas Day) through January 2, 2012. Hours are: Monday- Saturday, 10am – 8 pm and Sundays and holidays, Noon – 8pm. Special offers on tickets: Kids 4 and under are FREE, Tuesdays are Family Day (4 for $40) and Military are FREE. Visit www.christmasatthegalthouse.com or call 502-584-7777 for more information.
November – Breeders Cup Championship
Posted on 02. Nov, 2011 by admin in What’s on, What’s on
Seldom can there be a bigger purse in horse racing than the Breeders Cup Championships, this year being staged at the fabled home of the Kentucky Derby, the vast Churchill Downs track in Louisville.
With $26m in total prizemoney, spread over two days of racing on November 4 and 5, it is billed as the richest two days in sport and the defining event of the international racing season.
The prizemoney is spread over 15 races, which act as the traditional end of the horseracing season in the US, its finale being the prestigious one and one-quarter mile-long Breeders Cup Classic, known as The Final Race, offering a huge $5m in prizemoney, the richest race in North America, and the second highest purse in the world.
The races are open to any thoroughbred in the world that meets the eligibility requirements, with each race limited to 14 starters over three years old – if a race has more than 14 horses pre-enter, a selection system is used to whittle down the starters for each race.
The race was notably filled with American thoroughbreds but nowadays more and more international owners enter, not least thanks to the French horse Arcangues, which romped home in 1993 at 133-1, the biggest upset in the race’s 28-year history.
This year the fabled female thoroughbred Zenyatta, the first female to win the classic, is hosting the event, possibly America’s most famous racehorse right now.
If you want tickets and be among the ore than 70,000 who throng to the Downs for the two-day event, be they single-day seats or luxury two-day packages, visit here.
October – Perryville Battle, Authentic America
Posted on 03. Oct, 2011 by admin in What’s on
It’s a short hop in the car along the scenic 68 highway from Harrodsburg and Lexington to Perryville, a small town whose nearby Chaplin Hills hosted Kentucky’s biggest and bloodiest battle of the American civil war, the tumultuous conflict now marking its 150th anniversary right across the US.
The idyllic drive belies any notion of the bloodbath in October 1862. The first sign that any fighting took place amid the green rolling hills is the cutesy log cabin shops dotting the narrow undulating roads selling civil war memorabilia, marked usually by a Confederate flag fluttering high above. (Why is it that the loser’s flag is always most marked in war memorabilia shops?)
At Perryville, a 20,000-strong part of a Confederate expedition from Mississippi led by General Bragg tried to achieve the impossible: occupy a northern state. He marched all the way to near Louisville and Cincinnati, as much a drive for new recruits and supplies as for any political goal, but was pushed back until the head-on clash with part of a 55,000-strong Union force, leading to appalling loss of life. (Perryville, a small battle in civil war terms, had one of the highest casualty percentages of the entire war.)
It seems too idyllic a place for carnage, but casting an eye over the preserved 7,000-acre battlefield and wandering around the civil war pathway on a hot, sunny day, you can imagine the battle – grey-clad infantry and cavalry clashing with blue uniformed troops over rambling green rolling hills, firing behind makeshift wooden horse fences, fighting through clumps of trees, over grassy knolls and wading through glistening brooks. If you visit on 1-2 October 2011, re-enactments are held.
If you visit in summer, the heat, too, offers a reminder that Perryville was a fight for water as much as glory – both armies were fighting a lengthy drought and the hills boasted streams and brooks; the fighting actually started as both sides foraged for water.
The battle was part of the South’s “impossible dream” to occupy a northern state. Not that Kentucky was northern, politically. It was neutral, its state legislature allowing men to enlist on either side, making it perhaps more than any other state the most divided. Abraham Lincoln, from Kentucky himself, said: “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly to lose the whole game.” Kentucky is still largely split to this day; in a good way – as any Kentuckian will tell you, the state boasts both northern sensibilities and southern hospitality.
The 7,000-acre battlefield park has a great, albeit small museum, housed in a log cabin on a hill overlooking the field, a centre attracting 100,000 visitors a year and boasting great multimedia displays, neatly explaining both the civil war, how it affected Kentucky and what happened at Perryville, not least shining light on the incredibly confusing fog of war.
Not least General Polk’s bizarre encounter with Union troops. Fearing his men were firing upon their comrades, Polk rode across the battlefield to admonish the friendly fire. He suddenly realised he was in the Union lines, and arguing face to face with a Northern general. Bluffing it out he reprimanded his enemy, ordered the officer to cease fire and rode back along the Union line to his own side, whence he gave the order to fire. The Union’s regiment, shocked, was all but decimated.
So who won Perryville? It is hard to say. The South won a tactical victory, getting the better of a larger Union force, but the North won a sound strategic victory, later forcing Bragg’s army back into Tennessee, perhaps more due to lack of supplies and water than military tenacity or guile.
The fighting is also known as the Battle for Kentucky, for the south’s dream of annexing a northern state, and perhaps ultimate victory, died as much at Perryville as it did at the much bigger Battle of Antietam. As historian James McPherson put it, Perryville was part of the “great turning point of 1862”.
LINKS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Perryville
http://www.perryvillebattlefield.org/
http://www.perryvillebattlefield.org/html/coming_events.html
September – Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Posted on 01. Sep, 2011 by admin in What’s on
There can’t be many better scenic drives in the world, ambling through the winding country lanes of Kentucky, around lush rolling grass fields, dotted with historic towns such as Bardstown or Elizabethtown, with wooden churches, horse ranches and farms perched atop hills, all surrounded and criss-crossed with white horse fences. Welcome to Bluegrass County, perhaps Kentucky’s most historic region, and home of the fabled bourbon distilleries.
In fact there’s no better way to see the countryside than making for the distilleries, which holds a part of Kentucky history like no other industry. So popular are the drives that Kentucky has dreamt up the bourbon Trail, a handy network of routes linking six of the best distilleries – Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve, Maker’s Mark and Four Roses – and some of the most historic and picturesque countryside.
Woodford Reserve Distillery rack house
Finding out firsthand the art and science of crafting Bourbon, America’s native spirit, is fascinating – did you know, bourbon got its name from Bourbon county, named in recognition of the military help the Bourbon King Louis of France gave in the war of independence. The drink got it’s distinctive taste from the unique limestone water and ripe corn, and from the oak barrels it was shipped in on the long trip down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans; the oak giving it the distinct mellow flavour and amber colour.
Punters pick up a passport and have it stamped at the six distilleries – do all six and you get the T-shirt; more than 10,000 people sampled all six last year, so you won’t be alone. Just make sure you have a designated driver (not too much of a problem to share days, as it will take two days to tour all six, as although some are just eight miles apart, some are 70 miles away).
Most tours are free, but you have to be 21 under Kentucky law to enjoy the free tastings at the end of each tour. Just go to http://www.kybourbontrail.com/ for more details
August – Keeneland Race
Posted on 03. Aug, 2011 by admin in What’s on
Some call it America’s Ascot, but this being America, it’s not half as plummy nor aristocratic as the flagship British racing event.
Sure, people dress up at Keeneland, it is after all the thoroughbred racing Mecca for the US – it’s always voted the No 1 track. Some visitors dress smartly, most casually, and the odd person rather ludicrously – but Keeneland is far more democratic, and way more family friendly than its royal counterpart (with far fewer silly hats, too).
Like Ascot, there’s the fabled car park picnics, but it’s less the posh hampers with shampers round the back of the Bentley or Range Rover than fun barbecues and Budweiser at Keeneland. Well, it’s hardly a car park – the cars sit on the rolling lush bluegrass hills over the 1,000-acre site.
Tickets are easier to buy, too and often available on the day of the prime race, if you are willing to take a gamble on not seeing such hallowed events as the Bluegrass Stakes.
What’s more, tickets are cheaper than the staple £50 ticket for Ascot, just $8 to reserve a grandstand seat for some meets, rising to $25 for the Bluegrass Stakes. Hurry though, such seat applications need to be in by August 1, dining applications in July. General admission at Keeneland is just $5, with children under 12 allowed in free – perhaps more than other factor making it a more family-friendly event.
During my visit to the Keeneland races, I noticed more families and children than ever seen at all my racetrack visits in the UK (OK, four so far). It’s relaxed and fun.
So why the Ascot of America? Well, Keeneland is a venerable track, its old-world grandstand built in the 1930s – some feat in the midst of the Great Depression. That makes Keeneland virtually neolithic given the relatively short span of US history.
It was here that the movie Seabiscuit was filmed, largely because the surroundings here have hardly changed since Keeneland was built.
Perhaps it’s seen at the US Ascot because it is always ranked the No1 course for thoroughbred racing; perhaps because Keeneland was founded as a non-profitmaking track – very noble, though far from aristocratic – built to further the cause of racing in general rather than line pockets in particular.
Perhaps it’s because of the wealth assembled at the great meetings – there’s a Spring Meeting in April, a prelude to the Kentucky Derby on the first weekend in May, and a Fall Meeting in October. Perhaps, it’s because Keeneland likes to retain traditions – it was the last track in North America to broadcast race calls over its public-address system, not doing so until 1997.
Keeneland likes to think of itself as not so much “traditional” but as “selectively conservative”. It’s apt a description, because stuffy Keeneland isn’t, having introduced many an innovation over the decades, including the now ubiquitous polytrack surface – think millions of rubber bands mixed with sand and synthetic fibers and woven into a kind of racing carpet that lays on the mud, all to save the legs and hoofs of the expensive thoroughbreds galloping above.
This year the track at Lexington, the epicentre of America’s horse and horseracing industry, celebrates its 75th birthday – the first race being run on October 15 1936 – so expect a bit more pomp and ceremony than usual.
Want to visit, then pop here to see ticket prices and how to apply, but hurry – it’s the 75th anniversary.
July – Kentucky Nascar
Posted on 08. Jul, 2011 by admin in What’s on
The Kentucky Speedway, home to the Nascar Sprint Cup Series
It’s taken a long, long time but Kentucky is finally under starters order: it’s very own Nascar Sprint Cup Series event.
The chequered flag waves on July 11, promising a huge Saturday night party, luring 116,000 petrol-heads and race fans to the vast Kentucky Speedway stadium tucked into the countryside at Sparta, between Louisville and Cincinnatti.
The fabled Sprint Cup Series with Nascar (the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing), as popular in America as Grand Prix in Europe, pinballs to and fro right across America, from the immortal Daytona 500 race to the fabled Indianapolis circuit and Talladega Superspeedway to oval tracks from Vegas in the southwest to New Hampshire in the northeast. Now Kentucky is on the map.
Huge crowds flock to the Nascar events. Why? Imagine deafening noise, the heavy whiff of petrol and smoke, and the spectacular scenes from grandstand seats jacked-up as high as a tower block, watching the souped-up, precision-engineered Fords and Chevvies battle it out at speeds of more than 200mph over as many as 500 laps for two to three hours, hugging and tucking into rivals’ slipstreams just waiting to pounce.
As Nascar itself puts it: “Your heart will pound. Your seat will shake. Your vision will blur.” They are not wrong.
Don’t Believe us, then take a look at this, possibly the craziest ever finish to a Nascar race, as if straight out of the Will Ferrell spoof Talladega Nights, with poor old Nascar maestro Carl Edwards playing the role of Ricki Bobby.
As with all American sporting events, it’s more than just racing. It’s an experience. A true happening: be it mingling with the crowds in the towering grandstands or in the traditional car park barbecue, enjoying the campground picnics, having a beer and hotdog by the trackside or camping for days like thousands of other devotees in Kentucky Speedway’s sprawling 200 acres. Soon there’ll even be a casino.
If you can’t make the Sprint Cup, October sees just as racey, just as raw an event at Kentucky Speedway, with the IndyCar competitions, the American version of Formula 1.
Kentucky is the first new track on the Sprint Cup Series since 2001, when Kansas and Chicagoland held their inaugural races. Kentucky’s gain is Atlanta’s loss, surrendering one of its two races, part of a big shake-up in the schedules to reward keen newcomers such as Kentucky Speedway.
The track had tried for what seemed aeons to lure the grand Sprint Cup Series to its newly developed oval at Sparta. It won Nascar Truck events and a Nationwide cup event, but it always seemed to miss out on the grand prize: the Sprint Cup.
Why? Well, it didn’t help that the granddaddy of race venues, Indianapolis, was seen as too near, just three hours’ drive away; there was the huge monsoon rains for the inaugural Truck race which turned the circuit into a mudbath, prompting traffic jams all the way down Interstate 71 (shades of Silverstone Grand Prix in 2000?), and there were several “unhelpful” legal barriers always frustrating the prize.
Now it’s finally happened and Kentucky is counting down to the big night. Very soon, hopes Kentucky Speedway, there’ll be a second race. Watch this space.
For tickets, click here. For more informaion on the Sprint Cup Series click here and for Nascar click here.
June – Great American Balloon Race
Posted on 01. Jun, 2011 by admin in What’s on
Great American Balloon Race
The countdown to lift-off is nearly upon us, the Great American Air Balloon Race in good ol’ Danville, Kentucky is just around the corner.
The 22nd annual spectacular has become a great family day out, with people of all ages flocking to Junction City to watch the bright blue June skies fill up with the multi-hewn balls of fabric and hot air. It’s like a rainbow, albeit in dots.
Families from across the state flock to Danville, near Harrodsburg, for the race, which celebrates all things ballooning, historically man’s first successful attempt to fly. It started in Paris, in 1783, with two men flying 5.5miles for 23 minutes before plunging safely down to Earth.
We don’t know where “le ballon” touched down but the Danville enthusiasts seek to emulate the landing, albeit in a more modern, much more controlled, and safer way.
The event – on June 10 this year – is not so much a race as a test of aeronautics and navigation, the balloon pilots testing their guile against wind and air pressure to land their flimsy, lightweight craft within 200 yards of the set landing target, with the closest balloon scooping the $1,000 prize.
It’s a tricky task, some years there have been no winners at all, the weather conditions making it too difficult for any of the 20 or so balloon pilots to get anywhere near the mark.
The field opens at 5pm, with a brass band playing in the crowd and food vendors opening for snacks and refreshment. At 6.30pm the pilots gather at the VIP hangar and by 7pm the fist balloons take off. Ninety minutes later the winner is awarded.
Why so late in the day? Apparently ballooning is best at sunrise or sunset, all due to the prevailing thermals and wind.
If you can’t make the June 10 event, try the all-year round balloon ride specialists at louisvilleballoonrides.com, offering unforgettable aerial views of Kentucky in the heart of the bluegrass country. Or if you plan to visit Louisville in spring for the fabled Kentucky Derby, check out the Derby race in the sky, the Derby Festival Great Balloon Race. Or if you visit in deep summer, venture to Lexington’s 15th Annual Rotary BB&T Fourth of July Balloon Rally.
May – The Fort Knox Experience
Posted on 20. May, 2011 by admin in What’s on
Fort Knox in Kentucky
A universal byword for impregnable security, Fort Knox in Kentucky is known the world over as home to the US gold bullion reserve. Well, it does have a 22-tonne steel door.
As the resting place of perhaps the greatest concentration of wealth in the world – some 47.3 million troy ounces of gold are stored in Fort Knox, that’s £96bn ($130bn), all in nice gold brick bars – it is guarded by more than a few dobermans. Only one man has managed to foil security there: the eponymous main baddie in the James Bond classic film Goldfinger.
Bond film crews were allowed to film the reserve building’s exterior but were banished from inside, for obvious security reasons. Obviously, simple tourists can’t pop in for a quick peek at the gold but you can venture onto the grounds of the 110,000-acre Fort Knox army base and drive past the building (from a distance). Just mind all the tanks and army trucks trundling by.
Recently, amid all the banking and global finance shenanigans, some people such as Texas congressman Ron Paul, have called for an audit of the gold; the last time a team of accountants went through the reserves was under President Eisenhower. They want to count it, and, more importantly perhaps, make sure the US Federal Government still owns it.
Since it was built in 1937 the gems locked inside the vault have included the US Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, parts of the Gutenberg Bible and Magna Carta.
Remember: if anyone stops you for acting suspiciously, or just being there, say you are visiting the newly remodelled and completely refurbished General George Patton museum, dedicated to the famous, though somewhat controversial world war II general, plus the US military throughout the ages, all housed nearby.
There’s events throughout the year, including re-enactments and the annual Life of the Soldier weekend, this year from May 27 to May 29, which details the life of the American soldier nice 1775.
For more information visit Armor for the Ages.