The Battle Rages Higher tells, for the first time, the story of the Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry, a hard-fighting Union regiment raised largely from Louisville and the Knob Creek valley where Abraham Lincoln lived as a child. Although recruited in a slave state where Lincoln received only 0.9 percent of the 1860 presidential vote, the men of the Fifteenth Kentucky fought and died for the Union for over three years, participating in all the battles of the Atlanta campaign, as well as the battles of Perryville, Stones River and Chickamauga. Using primary research, including soldiers' letters and diaries, hundreds of contemporary newspaper reports, official army records, and postwar memoirs, Kirk C. Jenkins vividly brings the Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry to life. The book also includes an extensive biographical roster summarizing the service record of each soldier in the thousand-member unit.

Kirk C. Jenkins, a descendant of the Fifteenth Kentucky's Captain Smith Bayne, is a partner in a Chicago law firm.

Reviews:

"An extremely fine regimental history, entertainingly written. It is essential for anyone interested in Kentucky infantry regiments or with the Civil War in the West."--Civil War News

"An extensive biographical roster describing each man in the unit completes this sound, multidimensional interpretation of a military community. . . . Merits wide notice."--Journal of Southern History

"A well-researched and well-written regimental history that illuminates the fighting in a crucial sector of the Western theater, and gives much insight into Kentucky's role in the fight."--Signal Flag

"A new kind of regimental history that could well serve as a model for the genre in the twenty-first century."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Provides new information on the experience of soldiers in the ranks and valuable perspective on the difficulties of men from a slave border state serving in the Union army."- H-Net

"Carefully researched and well-written, this is a welcome addition to the short list of histories of small Kentucky units."- Bowling Green Daily News

"Jenkins has done a first rate job of research and an equally good job of presenting an interesting and engaging story."-Civil War Book Review

"A study in controversy and contradictions, The Battle Rages Higher is an interesting look into a chapter of the war that is little realized."-Chevy Chaser

"Jenkins' story follows the soldiers as they march from Kentucky through Tennessee, into northern Alabama, back to Kentucky and then to Atlanta."-(Hardin, Co) News-Enterprise

"Important new information on the regiment’s creation and make-up; the appended regimental roster will be a great boon to readers. A solid addition to the existing scholarship -I look forward to having this volume on my personal bookshelf."-Kenneth W. Noe, author of Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle

"A well-written entertaining narrative grounded on good research. Important for those intrigued by the war in Kentucky and the western campaigns, including Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta."-David Eicher, author of The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War

"One of the first [books] to examine those from the Bluegrass who wore blue. . . . A well-written, lively account of what Union soldiers experienced in the Western theater."-Washington Times