8th Kentucky Infantry

8th Kentucky Infantry Regiment
Active	September 1861 to May 4, 1865
Country	Confederate States of America
Branch	Confederate States Army
Type	Infantry & Mounted Infantry
Engagements	Battle of Fort Donelson Vicksburg Campaign Siege of Jackson Battle of Tupelo Battle of Franklin Wilson's Raid

The 8th Kentucky Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

The 8th Kentucky Infantry Regiment was organized in September 1861, at Camp Boone in Montgomery County, Tennessee, since Kentucky had officially declared its neutrality in the war. Henry Cornelius Burnett, a former member of the United States House of Representatives, helped organize the regiment and was commissioned its colonel, but he never took active command.

The regiment was captured at the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Of 312 men engaged in the battle, 99 were killed or wounded. Colonel Burnett had joined the regiment prior to the battle — again not commanding — but escaped capture by leaving on a river boat with Brigadier General John B. Floyd's command. Burnett then resigned from the army to serve full-time as a Confederate senator for Kentucky. After being exchanged in September 1862, the regiment was attached first to Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman's Brigade, then to Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford's Brigade in the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.

The regiment fought under Generals Earl Van Dorn and John C. Pemberton during the Vicksburg Campaign. Prior to the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, Colonel Hylan Benton Lyon and 250 men of the 8th Kentucky managed to escape. Lyon led them to Jackson, Mississippi, where they joined the Confederate forces stationed there.

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