Southeast Kentucky was not a good place to be during the Civil War. Not only did the armies from both sides frequently move through the county taking what they wanted, but the residents were divided in their loyalties.

The majority of Harlan Countians were apparently for the Union but there were many who believed and fought for the Rebel cause. A number of the Rebel sympathizers lived on Clover Fork, particularly in the vicinity of Yocum Creek.

Documented sources originating during the Civil War are scarce but petitions for pardons granted afterward tell us much. When the war was over, many people brought charges regarding local wartime activities, possibly sometimes as a political vendetta as is suggested in one of the following pardons.

In 1866, David, Benjamin and William T. Middleton, sons of Walter and Sarah Turner Middleton, were charged with several wartime robberies. In January, 1867, all three petitioned Thomas Bramlett, Governor of Kentucky, for pardons, William's petition is brief and uninformative, but those of his brothers give us a perspective on the effects of the war here.

David first makes a lengthy denial of any involvement whatsoever in the robberies with which he is charged and "that he always was in favor of the `old Union & Constitution' that he never thought or spoke a disloyal sentiment, that in consequence of these political views and opinions he was driven from his home and county."

He continues, stating that the case "is kept in court as a matter of annoyance to him. He says that he is a poor man and has been stripped of his property by both armies...the whole matter grew out of the war in consequence of high political feeling."

On the other hand, his brother Benjamin does not deny that he served for the Confederacy. He says "when the recent rebellion in the United States broke out, he like many young men in the county were misled and went off in to the Confederate army...that while in the service his command was frequently in Harlan County.

"That while here they would take such things as horses, cows, hay and such things in order to subsist upon. That if he ever assisted in taking such things it was done under the orders of his superior officers...He says he was always opposed to taking property from citizens and especially his neighbors among whom he was born and raised...He says that he is a poor young man having been stripped of everything during the war."

Although he did not state so in his petition, William T. Middleton had also served in the Confederate Army and his circumstances were probably much like those of his brother, Benjamin. All three were pardoned on January 22, 1867. The news of their pardons may have raised the hopes of Benjamin's wife Sarah's brother, David Blevins.

Blevins' petition, dated Jan. 31, 1867, seeks a pardon on a charge of murder. He states that "during the recent rebellion in the United States, he, like many others being misinformed and misguided, went into the Confederate Army and while in said army he obtained a leave of absence to visit his family who was then in Harlan County.

"While at home on his own premises and behaving himself as a peaceable and quiet citizen in fact was keeping himself rather concealed through fear of the Federal army, not for crime but because he was a soldier of the Rebel army. That while at home a certain Jason Fields attempted to and did undertake to arrest your petitioner for what purposes he does not know.

"That he supposes in the difficulty it is true that said Fields was killed but that the same was done in your petitioner's own necessary self-defense and in order to prevent being arrested by him. He says that he sincerely regrets that said difficulty ever took place but that he was compelled to do as he did do not knowing what would be done with him if arrested whether taken out and shot or hung or what.

"That at the time the same was done there was no law, order or anything of the kind in the County and that the County was disputed ground between two contending armies and men scarcely knew what to do in order to save life, liberty and property." Blevins was pardoned March 3, 1867.