Thompson, Edwin Porter, 1834-1903.

Confederate army officer, educator, editor, military historian, superintendent of public instruction, and state librarian of Ky.

The First Kentucky Brigade was part of the Confederate Army. It became known as the Orphan Brigade after Union troops captured Fort Donelson (1862), leaving the brigade cut off from it's home state for the duration of the war. Despite this, the Orphan Brigade distinguished itself on and off the battlefield by maintaining high morale, discipline, and effective military tactics. They lost two brigader generals in battle: Roger Weightman Hanson and Benjamin Hardin Helm. Regiments from the brigade fought with distinction in the Battles of Shiloh, Cornith, Vicksburg, Stone's River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. Only about five hundred of the the original four thousand men survived to the war's end. The brigade was one of the last Confederate groups east of the Mississippi to lay down their arms. [The Kentucky Encyclopedia, p. 698-699]