LEXINGTON, Ky. — Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued an order in Texas that became central to the history of Juneteenth — a story with ties to Lexington.
Juneteenth celebrations are taking place across the country all weekend, and a man buried at Lexington Cemetery is part of that legacy.
Kelly Smith is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. “I was born in Fort Knox. As a matter of fact, my father was in the military, and we moved overseas to Germany, where we were in Fort Benning, Georgia, and he came back to Fort Knox,” Smith said…