Henry Moses Judah. Letter of Recommendation written in English, to Governor James Fisher Robinson.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

3rd October

Walton, Kentucky

1862

The letter recommends Oliver Palmer (1828-63) for a commission as Captain of Volunteers in the Union Army. Judah offers that Palmer is “a gentleman entirely.”

Kentucky’s status in the Civil War was interesting. A border state, with popular sentiment both pro-Union and Confederacy, Kentucky sought to remain neutral after the outbreak of hostilities. A Confederate general attempted to seize Kentucky for the Confederacy, but failed. Most of Kentucky thus came under Union control, and some 125,000 Kentuckians served in the Union Army, with 35,000 serving in the Confederacy. Henry M. Judah (1821-66), a classmate of Ulysses S. Grant at West Point, was a career officer who served with distinction in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. James Fisher Robinson (1800-1882) was appointed governor after the pro-Confederacy governor Beriah Magoffin was forced to resign. A companion letter from Palmer to Gov. Robinson, dated October 1, 1862 (see Kentucky Historical Society Civil War, Governors of Kentucky digital archive) makes the request that Palmer be granted the commission rather than be enlisted in the ranks. Pointing out that he had, “out of a sense of duty to my state & country… abandoned the peaceful avocations of life for the field” he “would simply say that I have seen service, & believe myself qualified for service under the above named Commission.”