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The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Morgan's Raid (July, 1863) - Jan. 15th, 2004
"Lexington" ^ | 1975 | Mary Wilson and Sharon Y. Asher

Posted on 01/15/2004 12:01:10 AM PST by SAMWolf



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

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The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

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Morgan’s Raid
in
Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio
(July 1863)


One of the most interesting phases of the Civil War was the well-known raid conducted by General John Hunt Morgan through Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana in the summer of 1863. This daringly executed foray deep into enemy territory was strictly a nuisance, and little more, for it did not help the Southern cause to any significance. However, the few days the raid lasted it caused a great deal of excitement and considerable inconvenience to the people of Southern Indiana.


Morgan's Raid, July 2-16, 1863


Local interest in this spectacular raid lies in the fact that Morgan and his men traversed Scott County from west to east over the route of the old historic Cincinnati Trace (then called the Lexington-Salem State Road), and that he and his men spent one of the four nights they camped in Indiana in Lexington, then the county seat of Scott County.

Further interest is derived from the fact that General Morgan and the Morgan family of Scott County are related. One of Scott County's pioneers, David Morgan -- father of Nathan R. Morgan, came to the county in 1820 from Bourbon County, Kentucky. Although the exact relationship between the two families has not as yet been established, David Morgan was probably a first cousin of Calvin C. Morgan, father of John Hunt Morgan, and both were grandsons of Gideon Morgan (died 1830) who emigrated from New Jersey to Virginia sometime before the Revolutionary War and who was a kinsman of General Daniel Morgan (1736-1802) of Revolutionary War fame. It is said that when General Morgan and his Raiders came through Scott County he sent word to his Indiana kinfolks that he wished to visit them while in the County, but was prevented from doing so by the exigencies of war!


General John Hunt Morgan, CSA


John Hunt Morgan, son of Calvin and Henrietta Hunt, was born June 1, 1825 in Huntsville, Alabama from whence his father and his grandfather, Luther Morgan, had emigrated from Virginia. When he was three years old, his father moved to his mother's home town of Lexington, Kentucky where he grew up. In the war against Mexico he served as a First Lieutenant in a cavalry regiment.

Following this, he engaged in manufacturing in Lexington, Kentucky and became quite wealthy. His home can still be seen there.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he and his four brothers--Calvin, Charlton, Richard and Thomas, joined the Confederate Army. His two sisters were married to Confederate generals--Ditty to General A. P. Hill and Henrietta to General Basil W. Duke, who accompanied his brother-in-law on his famous raid and later wrote his authoritative History of Morgan's Cavalry.

In 1862, following the Battle of Shiloh, John Hunt Morgan was made a Colonel and still later a General.


MATTIE READY and JOHN HUNT MORGAN
Shortly before Christmas of 1862 Morgan, 37, married Mattie Ready, 17, in Murfreesboro, TN. Several days after the wedding Morgan and his cavalry set out on a raid north of the Cumberland River. Wilder and his men were sent in persuit--on foot! Both brigades would miss each other, and the battle of Stones River.


His men, collectively and in detached bands, became famous for partisan warfare throughout Kentucky and Tennessee, raiding towns, robbing trains, destroying railroad property and committing deeds of violence amounting to highway robbery, except so far as excused by the state of war.

Morgan's famous raid through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio was probably done with the deliberate intent of creating a diversion from the movement of General Braxton Bragg and his troops from Tullahoma to Chattanooga, Tennessee. However, Morgan disobeyed Bragg's (1817-1876) instructions to confine himself to Kentucky and started on a forlorn trip which was doomed to failure.

On May 26, 1863 Morgan had 2460 men, two three-inch Parrott guns and two twelve-inch howitzers. Two brigades under him were principally composed of men from the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth and Eleventh Kentucky and the Ninth Tennessee Cavalry Regiments. They were commanded by General Basil W Duke and Bushrod Johnson.


Parrott gun


On June 11, 1863 they left their headquarters at Alexandria, Tennessee and on July 2 crossed the Cumberland River at Burkesville, Kentucky. In a battle at Columbus, Kentucky on July 4th, they lost sixty men when they unexpectedly encountered Federal troops. On July 5th they fought and captured the Federal garrison at Lebanon, Kentucky. It was during this battle that General Morgan's youngest brother, Lieutenant Thomas Morgan, was killed.

On Tuesday, July 7th, Morgan's advance guard reached Brandenburg, Kentucky on the Ohio River forty miles below Louisville. On July 8th his men captured the steamers "J. T. McCombs" and "Alice Dean" and were successfully ferried across the river to the Indiana shore. Then they proceeded to loot the town of Mauckport, two miles down the river from their crossing.

From Mauckport the Confederate cavalry drove into Corydon where stores were raided, the county treasury robbed, private homes pillaged and women forced to prepare meals for the unwelcome guests. General Morgan made his headquarters at the town's main hotel, Kintner's. Meanwhile, over 500 horses were taken from their owners in the nearby countryside in exchange for poor, worn-out ones.



The same day, July 9th, Federal troops under General Edward Hobson reached Brandenburg, crossed the river, and subsequently pursued Morgan's Raiders across the entire states of Indiana and Ohio.

The Confederates spent the night in Corydon and the morning of July 10th, leaving eleven wounded soldiers to be cared for by the citizens of the town, they advanced on Salem in two columns. Morgan delayed a few hours in Palmyra while one column of his troops looted Paoli and another Greenville, in Floyd County. After dispersing the Home Guard at Salem they occupied and thoroughly plundered the town. Men were seen, it has been said, riding around carrying all sorts of booty. One cavalryman had a bird cage with three canaries in it, and others had bolts of calico tied to their saddles. However, no examples of personal violence or cruelty were reported.

Leaving Salem in two columns they headed for Lexington. One column crossed the Jeffersonville and Indianapolis Railroad at Henryville, Clark County, while the other went by way of Canton, New Philadelphia and Leota and, at approximately six o'clock, they arrived at the same railroad in Vienna.


From Harper's New Monthly Magazine (August, 1865), Courtesy of Burton Milward


At Vienna the railroad station and the telegraph operator were captured before the operator could give the alarm. General Morgan put one of his own men, Lieutenant Ellsworth who knew how to operate the telegraph, in charge of the office. He listened on the wires until he had learned all the news to be obtained from Louisville and Indianapolis, including the fact that orders had been issued to the Militia to fell timber and blockade the principal roads which the invaders would be likely to travel to the East. According to Duke "our rapid marching had, hitherto, saved us this annoyance." They also learned in this manner that the Union forces under Hobson had crossed the Ohio River and were only a few miles behind them.

They learned that the state was virtually swarming with soldiers and that every train entering Indiana was bringing additional forces. The Raiders did all they possibly could to hamper the pursuit of the Union Cavalry, such as burning all the bridges. Their system of horse stealing was almost perfect. They would dispatch men from the head of each brigade to go five miles into the country on each side of the road. They would then seize every available horse and fall in at the rear of the column. In this way the Confederates swept the countryside of all horses for ten miles, leaving their own worn-out animals for the use of the Union forces.



According to Goodrich in his Illustrated History of Indiana (1875), a Scott County farmer ruefully said, "Many are the farmers through this county who have bewailed the day when they 'swapped' their fine, fat, sleek horses for the worn-out, sore-backed jades of the Rebels!" The fine blooded Kentucky horses, however, which were left behind in Indiana, though worn-out, were of such good stock that the breed of Indiana horses was greatly improved.

At both Henryville and Vienna the railroad depots were burned, the tracks torn up and the telegraph wires cut. At Vienna they also burnt the water station, the turntable and a railroad bridge which spanned Pigeon Roost Creek. All of these structures were built of wood, as was the custom then. In Vienna they also robbed the stores and private houses.



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: civilwar; freeperfoxhole; indiana; johnhuntmorgan; kentucky; morgansraid; ohio; veterans; warbetweenstates
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To: SAMWolf
Glad your disconnect didn't last long. ;-)
121 posted on 01/15/2004 7:37:39 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it
Evening Grace Snip & Sam~

Enjoyed the read on Morgan's Raiders.

What ever the problem was it seems to have fixed itself.

Try pouring hot water on your cable/router connects . . . it works for "frozen" pipes! ;^D

122 posted on 01/15/2004 7:46:05 PM PST by w_over_w (Factoid: Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.)
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To: PhilDragoo; snippy_about_it; Darksheare
<===Mash This
123 posted on 01/15/2004 7:46:33 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: SAMWolf
Who knew? Not me. I remember the Blob but not the song. It's kinda cute.
124 posted on 01/15/2004 7:49:07 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: w_over_w
Good evening w_over-w

Try pouring hot water on your cable/router connects

YAY!!!! That seemed to fix the problem.

125 posted on 01/15/2004 7:50:04 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: snippy_about_it
I wish I could find the whole thing.
126 posted on 01/15/2004 7:50:39 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: SAMWolf
Good to see you back, Sam. :-)
127 posted on 01/15/2004 7:53:06 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul (Freedom isn't won by soundbites but by the unyielding determination and sacrifice given in its cause)
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To: snippy_about_it

128 posted on 01/15/2004 7:53:34 PM PST by GailA (Millington Rally for America after action http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/872519/posts)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; Johnny Gage; colorado tanker; Light Speed; Darksheare; E.G.C.; ...
Sure looks like a rip off of the B-1 bomber.



Gotta go watch From China With Love.

A clue to the similarity may lie within the Russian aircraft designation Tu-1B160.

129 posted on 01/15/2004 7:59:37 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: GailA
Hiya Gail. Good to see you.
130 posted on 01/15/2004 7:59:57 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: PhilDragoo
I looked for it at 9EST but couldn't find it on here.
131 posted on 01/15/2004 8:01:09 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: snippy_about_it
"Because Camp Chase, the prisoner of war camp outside Columbus, was not considered secure enough for such desperate prisoners,"

snippy,
My great, great, great uncle and his step brother were held at Camp Chase, Ohio. My great uncle was kept in a cell with four other men. They all contracted smallpox, and the other three died. His step-brother, Crockett, only 18 years old, also died at Camp Chase of smallpox. I have a copy of the pitiful letter my uncle wrote home telling his parents of his brother's death. Disease claimed about twice the number of lives as battle injuries did.
132 posted on 01/15/2004 8:03:33 PM PST by Humal
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To: snippy_about_it
Local PBS out of Albuquerque KNME 5. Assume each PBS station to be a little fiefdom of liberal egos.
133 posted on 01/15/2004 8:03:37 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
I almost started getting the Heebie Jeebies. :-)
134 posted on 01/15/2004 8:05:37 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: PhilDragoo
It sure is amazing how close the last few planes the Soviets built, look to the planes we designed and built.

Wonder if Hillary or Bill had access to our plans?
135 posted on 01/15/2004 8:08:24 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: Humal
Hi Humal. We're they buried there and did they stay buried there? I know many were removed and given back to the South if I remember correctly. I live not too far away from there and walked through the cemetary once. It's very small.
136 posted on 01/15/2004 8:08:58 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: GailA
Evening GailA. Nice graphic tonight.
137 posted on 01/15/2004 8:09:20 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: Humal
The pow camps on both sides were miserable hellholes with disease taking a large toll in lives. You were almost better off getting killed on the battlefield.
138 posted on 01/15/2004 8:12:31 PM PST by SAMWolf (I am Homer of Borg. Prepare to be... ooooohh, doughnuts!)
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To: Humal
Here is a link to Camp Chase.
139 posted on 01/15/2004 8:12:43 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: snippy_about_it
"We're they buried there and did they stay buried there?"

As far as I know, Crockett, my ggg uncle's 18 year old step-brother, was buried there and never moved. My uncle, in spite of the smallpox, survived and was paroled at the end of the war. My uncle later committed suicide. Since no note was left, there has been a lot of speculation as to why he did that.

Three of his brothers-in-law served in the Union armies.
140 posted on 01/15/2004 8:23:37 PM PST by Humal
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