Captain "Devil Joe" Adkins
Company B, 5th KY. Infantry

 

Originally a resident of Morgan County, Joseph D. Adkins was born

in 1829, married twice, and enlisted in the Confederate Army on

October 21, 1861 at West Liberty, Kentucky as a 2nd Lieutenant. By

July of 1862 he had been promoted to Captain of Company B and he

remained in service through the reorganization of the original 5th

Kentucky. He was captured in Morgan County on August 18, 1863

and taken to McLean Barracks in Cincinnati, Ohio. He served later in

the war with an independent partisan ranger group in what is now

Elliott County. A few months after the war, in October of 1865,

Captain "Devil Joe" Adkins was killed in a street brawl by another ex-

Confederate Ned Perry. The encounter took place in front of the

Kendall Hotel on Main Street in West Liberty. Captain Adkins chose a

rock as his weapon, Perry chose a pistol. His body was taken from

West Liberty to his home on Howard’s Creek and he was laid to rest

in the Adkins Cemetery.

 

SANDY HOOK, KY. Saturday, November 22, 2003,

-- Members of the Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp participated in a

major milestone in the history of our organization with the setting

and dedication of our 600th Confederate military marker. The stone

and ceremony honored Captain "Devil Joe" Adkins, Company B, 5th

KY. Infantry. A good size crowd of camp members, family members

and researchers met Saturday afternoon at 1:30 in Sandy Hook,

Kentucky and then caravaned from Rt. 32 up Howard’s Creek to the

foot of a mountain. From there the stone and tools were placed on a

4-Wheeler while the participants climbed a steep heavily wooded

mountainside to reach the Adkins Cemetery. This event was the

culmination of many years of diligent research that went into finding

the Captain's "lost" gravesite.

James Prichard with the Kentucky State Archives traveled from his

home in Louisville to be with us and shared

some very interesting stories about the life of Captain Adkins. "Devil

Joe" has long been a favorite study for

Prichard and he was excited about this special ceremony to honor

the Captain's memory. Harold and Henrietta

McKinney of Morgan County were also on hand having played a

major role in the research that resulted in finding

the grave. The Caudill Camp would like to especially thank Henrietta

McKinney and Jim Prichard for their

outstanding work in this matter.

*Taken from Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp #1629 Website.

 

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Let Us Pray Our For Troops In Foreign Lands

The Civil War in Morgan County 2003

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