The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Morgan's Raid (July, 1863) - Jan. 15th, 2004

"Lexington" ^ | 1975 | Mary Wilson and Sharon Y. Asher

[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.

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

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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.

[snippy_about_it]

Mornin' SCDP. Sometimes it takes me all day to finish a thread depending on my work day. ;-)

[Darksheare]

But I just KNOW who gave it directions about where it was supposed to be.
];-)
*chuckle*

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Anywhere but where I am. ;-)

[Darksheare]

*shivers*
But didja have to send it to me?
I needs a basking rock to sun on!
*shivers*
;-)

[snippy_about_it]

I just told it not to come here! It's bitter cold here too, just light snow flurries but brrrrrr.

Temperature 17 °F / -8 °C
Windchill 5 °F / -15 °C

[Darksheare]

Oh.
You told it to take I-80 eastbound.
*chuckle*

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on January 15:
1432 Afonso V "the African" king of Portugal (1438-1481)
1622 Molière France, dramatist (Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope) (baptized)
1716 Philip Livingston merchant (signed Declaration of Independence)
1798 Thomas Crofton Croker Irish story teller (Fairy legends)
1809 Cornelia Connelly Philadelphia PA, founder (Society of the Holy Child Jesus)
1809 Pierre Joseph Proudhon France, politician (libertarian socialist)
1815 Henry Morris Naglee Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1817 Lewis Golding Arnold Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1871
1821 Lafayette McLaws Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1897
1841 Lord Frederick Stanley presenter of hockey's Stanley Cup
1850 Sonya Kurtovsky Kovalevsky Russia, mathemetician (Academy of Science)
1870 Johan Peter Koch Danish officer/explorer (Greenland)
1877 Lewis M Terman Indiana, psychologist (developed Stanford-Binet IQ test)
1902 Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Faisal al-Saud king (Saudi Arabia)
1908 Edward Teller Budapest Hungary, fathered H-bomb (Manhattan Project)
1909 Gene Krupa Benny Goodman's drummer (Sing Sing Sing)
1913 Lloyd Bridges San Leandro CA, actor (Sea Hunt, Roots, Airplane)
1918 Gamal Abdel Nasser President of Egypt (1954-1970)
1920 John J "Cardinal" O'Connor Philadelphia PA, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York
1929 Reverand Dr Martin Luther King Jr Atlanta GA, dreamer (Nobel 1964)
1929 "Queen Ida" Guillory Ziadaco music
1935 Robert Silverberg US, sci-fi author (Hugo, Regan's Planet)
1941 Captain Beefheart [Don Van Vilet], rocker (Bongo Fury, Shiny Beast)
1948 Ronnie Van Zant rocker (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1953 Randy White NFL tackle (Dallas Cowboys)
1974 Aubrey Jo Hiller Missoula MT, Miss Montana-America (1996)

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Deaths which occurred on January 15:
0069 Servius Sulpicius Galba 6th emperor of Rome (68-69), killed by Praetorian guard in the Forum Rome, at 70
1896 Matthew B Brady US photographer (Civil War), dies at about 72
1919 Karl Liebknecht Marxist revolutionary, murdered at 47
1919 Rosa Luxembourg Marxist revolutionary, murdered
1922 John Kirk Barry Dr/explorer David Livingstone's companion, dies at 89
1934 Patrick O'Malley US policeman, killed by John Dillinger
1949 Black Dahlia murder victim found in Los Angeles (basis of the movie)
1964 Weldon John "Jack" Teagarden US jazz trombonist/singer, dies at 58
1965 Pierre Ngendandumwe premier of Burundi, murdered
1966 Betsy Mitchell US 100m backstroke swimmer, dies at 25
1968 Bill Masterson 1st NHLer fatally injured during game (Jan 13), dies
1978 Margaret Bowman & Lisa Levy Chi Omega, FSU, killed by Ted Bundy
1981 Emanuel Celler (Representative-D-NY, 1923-73), dies at 92
1982 Red Smith sportscaster (Pulitzer, Fight Talk), dies at 76
1983 Meyer Lansky reputed mobster, dies in Miami Beach FL at 81
1987 Ray Bolger actor/dancer (Wizard of Oz), dies at 82
1988 Sean MacBride Ireland, commander of Irish Republican Army, dies at 83
1994 Harry Nilsson rock vocalist (Without You, Everybody's Talkin'), dies at 52
1996 Moshushu II King of Lesotho (1966-90), dies at 51
1998 Amos "Junior" Wells blues harpist, dies at 63

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1968 SKARMAN ORVAL H.---DULUTH MN.
[NO RETURN FROM R&R]
1970 TUBBS GLENN E.---AMARILLO TX.
1971 HARWOOD JAMES A.---DALLAS TX.
1971 KINSMAN GERALD F.---FOXBORO MA.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
0708 Sisinnius begins his reign as Catholic Pope (dies 20 days later)
0946 Caliph al-Mustaqfi blinded/ousted
1535 Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
1552 France signs secret treaty with German Protestants
1562 3rd sitting of Council of Trente opens
1582 Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, loses access to the Baltic
1624 Riots flare in Mexico when it is announced that all churches are to be closed.
1680 French explorer Sieur de la Salle builds Fort Crèvecoeur
1777 People of New Connecticut (Vermont) declare independence from England
1780 Continental Congress establishes court of appeals
1785 Mozarts string quartet opus 10 premieres
1797 1st top hat worn (John Etherington of London)
1831 1st US-built locomotive to pull a passenger train makes 1st run; Mr & Mrs Pierson of Charleston SC make 1st US railroad honeymoon trip
1844 U of Notre Dame receives its charter in Indiana
1861 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis
1863 1st US newspaper printed on wood-pulp paper, Boston Morning Journal
1865 Fort Fisher, NC falls to Union troops
1870 Donkey 1st used as symbol of Democratic Party, in Harper's Weekly
1877 US Assay Office in Helena, Montana opens
1882 1st US ski club forms (Berlin NH)
1895 Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premieres, St Petersburg
1907 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr Lee de Forest
1915 Japan claims economic control of China
1920 The United States approves a $150 million loan to Poland, Austria and Armenia to aid in their war with the Russian communists.
1919 2 million gallons of molasses "Tidal wave" Boston MA, drowning 21
1922 Irish Free State forms; Michael Collins becomes 1st premier
1934 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die
1934 Babe Ruth signs a 1934 contract for $35,000 ($17,000 cut)
1935 300 Dutch ice cream salesmen protest against Italian competition
1936 Non-profit Ford Foundation incorporates
1942 FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WWII
1942 Cubs, drop plans to install lights at Wrigley due to WWII
1943 1,000 workers complete the air conditioning system for the Pentagon
1943 Japanese driven off Guadalcanal
1943 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught
1944 European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany
1945 Red Army frees Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp
1949 Mao's Red army conquers Ten-tsin
1951 "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000
1951 Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest
1953 German Democratic Republic Minister of Foreign affairs Georg Dertingen arrested for "espionage"
1955 USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic
1957 Brooklyn Dodgers sign a new 3 year lease for Ebbets Field
1961 Supremes signed with Motown Records
1964 Teamsters negotiate 1st national labor contract
1965 Rock group The Who releases 1st album "I Can't Explain"
1967 Super Bowl I Green Bay Packers beat Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10 in Los Angeles; Super Bowl MVP Bart Starr, Green Bay, Quarterback
1970 Republic Biafra disbands/joins Nigeria
1971 George Harrison releases "My Sweet Lord"
1971 Aswan Dam official opens in Egypt
1972 Heavyweight Joe Frazier KOs Terry Daniels
1973 4 Watergate burglars plead guilty in federal court
1973 Pope Paul VI has an audience with Golda Meir at Vatican
1973 President Nixon suspends all US offensive action in North Vietnam
1974 Expert panel reports 18½-m gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures
1974 "Happy Days" begins an 11 year run on ABC
1975 Portugal signs accord for Angola's independence
1976 Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot President Ford
1976 US-German Helios B solar probe launched into solar orbit
1977 Coneheads debut on "Saturday Night Live"
1978 Theodore Bundy kills Florida State University co-eds Lisa Levy & Margaret Bowman
1981 "Hill Street Blues" premieres on NBC-TV
1981 Bob Gibson elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
1983 Thom Syles keeps a life saver intact in his mouth for over 7 hours
1988 Arab uprising in Israel begins
1988 Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder makes racist remarks about black athletes
1990 42 year old George Foreman KOs George Cooney in 2 rounds
1991 UN's deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait passes - (they don't)
1993 Top mafia leader Salvatore "Totò" Riina arrested in Palermo
1997 Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman kicks cameraman, Eugene Amosin the groin
1997 Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with Mir Space Station
1998 NASA announces John Glenn, 76, may fly in space again
2002 John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old American seized with the Taliban in Afghanistan in December, was charged with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and abetting terrorist groups.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Guatemala : Esquipulas
Japan : Adults Day/Seijin-No-Hi
Jordan : Arbor Day
Venezuala : Teachers' Day/Dia Del Maestro
US : Martin Luther King Jr Day (1929) (Monday)
Virginia : Lee-Jackson Day (Monday)
Florida : Arbor Day (Friday)
US : Guys Night Out
US : Man Watcher's Week (Day 5)
National Barbecue Month.

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Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Paul of Thebes, the 1st hermit
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Maurus, abbot

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Religious History
1697 The citizens of Massachusetts spent a day of fasting and repentance for their roles in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Judge Samuel Sewall, who had presided over many of those 20 capital judgments, published a written confession acknowledging his own "blame and shame."
1844 The University of Notre Dame was chartered under Roman Catholic auspices in Indiana.
1852 Mt. Sinai Hospital was incorporated by Sampson Simson and eight associates in NY City. It was the first Jewish hospital in the U.S.
1873 Lutheran founder of the Missouri Synod, C.F.W. Walther warned in a letter: 'Inactivity is the beginning of all vice.'
1970 Israeli archaeologists reported uncovering the first evidence supporting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by military forces of the ancient Roman Empire.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"When all is said and done, too many people keep on saying and doing."

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Question of the day...
If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?

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Murphys Law of the day...(Sodd's Second Law)
Sooner or later, the worst possible set of circumstances is bound to occur.

---

Astounding fact #76...
Camel's milk does not curdle.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone in The FOXHOLE!

[The Mayor]

Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. —James 1:22

Open your Bible prayerfully, read it carefully, and obey it joyfully

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

HI Radu! Nice to see you get in.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

[SAMWolf]

Morgan and his 30 officers were thrown in with the general population of felons in the penitentiary in Columbus. They were denied all visitors, and had to endure the humiliation of having their heads shaved and wearing convict clothes. These soldiers were occasionally punished by being put in solitary confinement in dank, unlighted prison cells. All of these actions were contrary to the rules governing the confinement of prisoners of war.

That was just wrong.

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. Hope that rain comes through for you.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Darksheare.

[SAMWolf]

Morning stainlessbanner. Grits is the one thing from down South I never acquired a tatse for. I'll help myself to the biscuits and gravy though

[SAMWolf]

Morning SCDogPapa. You're welcome and thanks for dropping by today.

[SAMWolf]

1919 2 million gallons of molasses "Tidal wave" Boston MA, drowning 21 I had to find out more on this one!

Forty minutes past noon on 15 January 1919, a giant wave of molasses raced through Boston. The unseasonably warm temperature (46 degrees) was the final stress needed to cause a gigantic, filled-to-capacity tank to burst. 2,320,000 gallons (14,000 tons) of molasses swept through the streets, causing death and destruction.

Eyewitness reports tell of a "30-foot wall of goo" that smashed buildings and tossed horses, wagons and pool tables about as if they were nothing. Twenty-one people were killed by the brown tidal wave, and 150 more were injured. The chaos and destruction were amplified -- and rescue efforts were hampered -- by the stickiness of the molasses. Those persons attempting to aid others all too often found themselves mired fast in the goo.

The day after the disaster, The New York Times reported:

A dull, muffled roar gave but an instant's warning before the top of the tank was blown into the air. The circular wall broke into two great segments of sheet iron which were pulled in opposite directions. Two million gallons of molasses rushed over the streets and converted into a sticky mass the wreckage of several small buildings which had been smashed by the force of the explosion. The greatest mortality apparently occurred in one of the city buildings where a score of municipal employees were eating their lunch. The building was demolished and the wreckage was hurled fifty yards. The other city building, which had an office on the ground floor and a tenement above, was similarly torn from its foundations.

One of the sections of the tank wall fell on the firehouse which was nearby. The building was crushed and three firemen were buried in the ruins.

Boston is not a city that forgets anything easily. There are those who claim that on a hot summer day in the North End, you can still smell the molasses.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Feather.

[SAMWolf]

Hiya Mayor. Coffee sure goes down nice on a damp foggy morning.