The summer of 1864 was a busy one in Western Kentucky with skirmishes along the Ohio River as well as in many of the towns in the area. While Crittenden County could not claim an actual battle, there was guerrilla activity. The following article comes from the Evansville, Indiana Daily Journal of Thursday, 21 July 1864 and was reprinted from the Louisville Democrat.
Guerrillas in Western Kentucky - Murders and Robbery
The few residents remaining in Western Kentucky are now made to feel the full weight of rebel oppression. The country is completely under rebel rule, who hesitate not a moment to take whatever pleases their fancy. Opposite Cairo absolute distress prevails among the inhabitants, the guerrillas having stripped them of everything portable. It is useless to attempt to farm, as the scoundrels will be sure to destroy the crop.
In Crittenden county, opposite Elizabethtown, Illinois, ranges a large band of guerrillas under Broadfoot and Hub. Edmondson, generally about 30 in number, but over 200 have been seen with the party at one time. They sometimes claim to be recruits for Morgan, at other times for Forrest, and are composed of citizens, many of whom have been conscripted and have taken to pushwhacking [sic] in order to keep out of the federal army. On the 9th Broadfoot and Edmondson, with 12 comrades, rode up to the store of Mr. R.M. Bourland, Crittenden county, and robbed him of all his goods. Bourland then undertook to raise a company of Home Guards in the neighborhood, but, with a young man named Jenkins, was taken prisoner by the guerrillas. The party stopped within one mile of Perry [Piney?] Creek for dinner, where they paroled Jenkins. Bourland insisted that they should parole him also, but Broadfoot told him it would be done after dinner. True to their promise, after dinner they took him down to the creek and paroled him by shooting him and throwing his body into the creek, where it was found on Sunday. Bourland was a young man of much promise and greatly respected by all who knew him.
Published 13 February 2014, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/