Basil Wilson Duke
| Basil Wilson Duke | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 28, 1838 Georgetown, Kentucky |
| Died | September 16, 1916 (aged 78) New York City, New York |
| Place of burial | Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky |
| Allegiance | Confederate States of America |
| Service/branch | Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |
 Brigadier General
|
| Unit | 2nd Kentucky Cavalry 9th Kentucky Cavalry |
| Commands held | Morgan's Raiders |
| Battles/wars | |
| Other work | lawyer, lobbyist, writer |
Basil Wilson Duke (May 28, 1838 – September 16, 1916) was a Confederate general officer during the American Civil War. His most noted service in the war was as second-in-command for his brother-in-law John Hunt Morgan; Duke would later write a popular account of Morgan's most famous raid: 1863's Morgan's Raid. He took over Morgan's command after Morgan was shot by Union soldiers in 1864. At the end of the war, Duke was among Confederate President Jefferson Davis's bodyguards after his flight from Richmond, Virginia, through the Carolinas.
Duke's lasting impact was as a historian and communicator of the Confederate experience. As a historian he helped to found the Filson Club Historical Society and started the preserving of the Shiloh battlefield. He wrote numerous books and magazine articles, most notably in the Southern Bivouac. When he died, he was one of the few high-ranking Confederate officers still alive. Historian James A. Ramage said of Duke, "No Southerner was more dedicated to the Confederacy than General Basil W. Duke."
Basil Wilson Duke was born in Scott County, Kentucky, on May 28, 1838; the only child of career naval officer Nathaniel W. Duke and his wife, the former Mary Pickett Currie. He was 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m), slightly-built, with a resonant voice. A relative described him as "essentially a man of the 17th century, that century in half armor, torn between chivalry and realism". The family, members of the Episcopal Church, had originally been of Catholic English stock, descended from a 1634 immigrant from Devonshire named Richard Duke, who came to Maryland aboard the "Ark." Through his mother, Basil was of partial Scottish descent, with his grandfather James Currie having served several years in the British Navy before settling in the United States.
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