Hidden Secrets of Kentucky: Discovery of a Mass Grave Could Rewrite Civil War History of Black Union Soldiers
Here’s a thought to chew on: what are the odds that a soybean field in Kentucky is hiding one of the Civil War’s long-lost mass graves? In January 1865, 22 Black Union soldiers of Company E were brutally ambushed and killed near Simpsonville, Kentucky — a grim chapter known as the Simpsonville Massacre. For over a century, the exact resting place of these men has remained a mystery… until now. Thanks to some clever archaeology blending drones, ground-penetrating radar, and a 1936 map found in a dusty archive, researchers believe they’ve pinpointed where these heroes were laid to rest—right beneath a local farmer’s crops. It’s a haunting reminder that history is never as far beneath the surface as we think, sometimes tucked away beneath the most unassuming fields. Let’s hope these soldiers soon get the honor they deserve, and that history finally stops playing hide-and-seek.
In January 1865, 22 Black Union soldiers were killed in the Simpsonville Massacre, and their mass grave may have finally been located in the field of a local soybean farmer.
Brian Mabelitini, Kentucky Office of State ArchaeologyArchaeologist Brian Mabelitini searching for signs of the soldiers’ mass grave.
On a January day in 1865, Company E of the United States Colored Cavalry was ambushed by a group of Confederate guerrillas in Simpsonville, Kentucky. The 22 men of the Black company were brutally slaughtered and subsequently buried in a mass grave. The location of that grave has long mystified historians — but it may have just been located.
Using both remote-sensing technology and historical sources, archaeologists with the University of Kentucky believe that they’ve finally found the mass graves of Company E. They hope that the discovery will shine a light on the Simpsonville Massacre and that the soldiers will finally get a proper burial.
‘The Ground Was Stained With Blood’
National Park ServiceA plaque commemorating the Simpsonville massacre of 1865.
The Simpsonville Massacre took place on Jan. 25, 1865. According to the National Park Service, Company E of the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry had been tasked with moving cattle toward Louisville as part of the Union supply line. But near Simpsonville, they were ambushed by Confederate guerrillas.
Though the Black soldiers tried to fight back, they were hampered by their 853 Enfield rifles, which were impossible to load on horseback. This, wet powder, and bad weather put them at a disadvantage, and the Confederates slaughtered 22 men, shooting many in the back as they tried to flee.
“The ground was stained with blood and the dead bodies of negro soldiers were stretched out along the road,” The Louisville Journal reported at the time. “It was evident that the guerrillas had dashed upon the party guarding the rear of the cattle and taken them completely by surprise.”
Kentucky Historical SocietyThe memorial for the men who were killed during the Simpsonville Massacre, an ambush that left the ground “stained with blood.”
The paper continued: “It was a horrible butchery, yet the scoundrels engaged in the bloody work shot down their victims with feelings of delight.”
In the aftermath, the Black soldiers were buried in an unmarked mass grave. Although a memorial was erected in their honor, the exact location of this grave has been lost for over a century.
Now, however, it may have been located.
Searching For The Mass Grave In Simpsonville, Kentucky
The effort to locate the mass grave of Company E started with Jerry Miller, a retired state representative and local historian who set out to locate where the Union men had been buried. Working with Philip Mink, an archaeologist at the University of Kentucky, he pored over historical documents in hopes of finding the grave. Though they investigated a local African American cemetery in 2008, they were unable to locate a mass grave.
But in 2023, Miller came across a map from 1936 that marked a Civil War burial mound at a local farm.
Jerry MillerA map of the possible Civil War mass grave location in Simpsonville, Kentucky.
According to Live Science, the current owner of this farm confirmed that his father and grandfather had told him that their land held a Civil War grave, today located in one of his soybean fields. And he agreed to let Miller and Mink take a look to see if they could find it.
Using a drone-mounted magnetometer and terrestrial ground-penetrating radar, a team of archaeologists was able to find an “anomaly” in the farmer’s soybean fields that was five feet deep, 13 feet wide, and 65 feet long. While speaking at a conference for the Society for American Archaeology in April 2025, Mink said that this was “consistent with a mass grave.”
In fact, the archaeologists found two anomalies. According to Mink, this possibly suggests that the 14 men who died immediately were buried first, and the eight men who perished from their wounds later were buried in a second grave nearby.
Mink and the others are eager to learn more, but they’ll have to wait. Because the farmer has a crop of soybeans currently growing in the field, the archaeologists will not be able to excavate the area until this fall.
