SIDNEY — Ohio’s Civil War Living History Weekend Chair Mike Barhorst has announced that award-winning author Kent Masterson Brown will be speaking at this year’s event, scheduled for Sept. 21-22 at Sidney’s 226-acre Tawawa Park.
Brown, a Lexington, Kentucky constitutional attorney, is a distinguished graduate of Centre College and received his juris doctor degree from Washington and Lee School of Law. He practiced constitutional and administrative law for 47 years in Lexington, Kentucky, and for twenty-six years, as counsel to Webster, Chamberlain & Bean in Washington, DC.
Throughout his career as an attorney, Brown has cultivated his avocation in history. As a battlefield preservationist, he helped form the Perryville Battlefield Association and was appointed to serve as the Chairman of the Perryville Battlefield Commission. He also had a Presidential appointment as Chairman of the Gettysburg National Military Park Advisory Commission and served on the Board of the Gettysburg Foundation. Additionally, he researches American history, writing books and articles for scholarly presentation, and gives speeches and tours at Civil War battlefields to the avid American Civil War audience.
Brown was the creator and first editor of the national magazine, “The Civil War.” He is the author of six books, including Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander (University Press of Kentucky, 1993); The Civil War in Kentucky: Battle for the Bluegrass State (Savas Beatie, 2000); Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign (University of North Carolina, 2005); One of Morgan’s Men: The Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry (University Press of Kentucky, 2011); and Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command (University of North Carolina Press, 2021. All of Brown’s books have been selections of the History Book Club and Military Book Club.
In 2007, Brown extended his historical pursuits to writing, hosting, and producing eight award-winning documentary films for public and cable television. Those include The Long Road Back to Kentucky: The 1862 Confederate Invasion; Bourbon and Kentucky: A History Distilled; Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign; Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union; Unsung Hero: The Horse in the Civil War; Daniel Boone and the Opening of the American West; “I Remember the Old Home Very Well”: The Lincolns in Kentucky; and, “In the Declaration, all men are created equal:” Abraham Lincoln in Illinois, 1830-1860.
Every one of Brown’s films has been recognized for excellence by being selected for the sought-after Telly Award. In addition, all his films have been widely broadcast on public and cable television throughout the United States, Canada, and overseas.
Brown is the president and content developer of the Witnessing History Education Foundation, Inc., a qualified IRS 501(c) (3) non-profit, tax exempt, corporation. The corporation’s sole mission of which is to produce high quality documentary films on all aspects of American history for purposes of broadcast on public and cable television channels and other platforms across the country and overseas.
A nationally known speaker, Brown is a member of the Kentucky American Independence Semiquincentennial Commission, the Kentucky Film Commission, and a member of the Board of Directors of Smithfield Plantation, the home of Colonel William Preston, Blacksburg, Virginia. He resides in Lexington with his wife and their three children.
Brown will speak about Meade at Gettysburg on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 1:00 p.m. in the education tent at Sidney, Ohio’s Civil War Living History Weekend in Tawawa Park. On Sunday, Sept. 22, he will speak about Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign at 1:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Like the other authors, Brown will have copies of his books available to sign and sell during the event.
Although no Civil War battles were fought anywhere near Sidney, a considerable number of local men served in the Union Army during the Civil War. In fact, the 1860 Census records that Shelby County had a population of 17,493. Of that number 8,960 were male, and a staggering 14 percent of them served in the Army during the war. Of those, 25.58 percent (326) died in the service of their country.
