Gen. Morgan's Spectacular Raid
FRIGHTENED THREE STATES - John
Hunt Morgan was a brigadier general of
cavalry in the Confederate Army of Ten
nessee. A resident of Kentucky, Morgan
moved his militia company south when that
state became pro-north. He made a series of
raids from Tennessee to Kentucky with
great success. He started his longest - and
last - raid on July 2, 1863. It was to be cal
led the Ohio Raid and took him farther
north than any other Confederate unit. But
the Federal cavalry closed in on Morgan at
Beaver Creek, Ohio, where with only 400
men of the 2,600 with which he started, Mor
gan surrendered. In this drawing from the
Library of Congress collection, Morgan and
his men are depicted in an Indiana town.
(UPI)
By MERTON T. AKERS
UPI Correspondent
John Hunt Morgan was a
first-rate fighting man.
He was a brigadier general
of cavalry in the Confederate
Army of Tennessee command
ed by Gen. Braxton Bragg. He
fought his way farther north
than any other Confederate
commander in the Civil War,
farther north than Gen. Rob
ert E. Lee's Army of North
ern Virginia penetrated in his
second invasion which failed
on Cemetery Ridge at Gettys
burg. Morgan was made of the
same stuff as other famous
Rebel cavalry raiders. He had
much of Jeb Stuart's flair for
the spectacular - plummed
hats, high boots and flowing
whiskers. He shared with Na
than Bedford Forrest the abil
ity to ride fast, hit hard and
baffle pursuit. Like John S.
Mosby he could outguess Fed
eral cavalry and raid almost
at will.
All of these qualities, which
made him the darling of the
Confederacy for a time, he
came by without formal mili
tary training. His only mili
tary service before the Civil
War was a short stint in the
Mexican War as a lieutenant.
Moved To Kentucky
He was born in Huntsville,
Ala.. June 1. 1825. By 1830
his father had moved to Lex
ington, Ky., where he worked
for his father-in-law, John
Hunt, a planter and race
horse breeder who left a for
tune of nearly a milion dol
lars. -
Morgan was reared in the
Blue Grass tradition of fast
horses, bourbon whisky, gam
ing and dueling. He attended
Transylvania College in Lex
ington where President Jef
ferson Davis of the Confed
eracy had gone to school.
Near the end of his sec
ond year he was suspended
from college, the reason not
noted on the records. He nev
ed returned.
The start of the war found
Morgan a substantial business
man in Lexington and captain
of a militia company.
When Kentucky proclaim
ed itself "neutral" after Fort
Sumter, Morgan became im
patient to start fighting but
the time did not seem right
and he kept drilling his com
pany. The day the first battle of
Bull Run was fought - July
21, 1861 - his invalid wife,
Rebecca, died.
First Tricked Enemy
In September, Kentucky
definitely having turned pro
Union, Morgan first tricked
the enemy.
His company was pro-uon-federate
in that divided state.
The pro-Union state authori
ties ordered him to turn in
Senate Committee
Schedules Witness
Washington-mril-Roy Wil
kins today was scheduled as
the first Negro witness to
testify before Congress on
President Kennedy's bill 'o
ban discrimination in hotels,
motels, resturants and other
public facilities engaged in in- j
terstate business.
Wilkins. executive secretary
of the National Association
for the Advancement of Col
ored People, was to testify
before the Senate Commerce
Committee.
The committee has been
studying only the public ac
commodations of the admin
istrator's omnibus civil rights
package. Other parts of the
bill were being taken up by
the Senate Judiciary Commit
tee and a House Judiciary
Committee.
House To Be Asked
To Reconsider Action
Washington
the company's arms. Morgan
hid the arms and sent back
packing cases full of stones
instead.
The day after Federal
troops occupied Lexington,
Morgan loaded the guns on
wagons, covered them with
hay and drove them out of
town under the noses of the
Union troops.
Then with his company he
marched south to a scouting
and raiding career.
After the battle of Shiloh,
Morgan made three raids
from Tennessee into Ken
tucky, one in July '62, anoth
er in October of the same
year and the third at New
Year's time.
On the first raid with 800
' ,ft eVv . ...f aill r f --', jaiiMrxr
000 miles over Kentucky, cap
tured and paroled 1,200 pris
oners and destroyed mounds
of supplies, losing about 100
men.
His cenod raid was smaller
but this time he occupied his
hometown of Lexington.
The third raid with about
4,000 men bagged 1,887 pris
oners with the loss of only
2 killed and 24 wounded.
This time he destroyed about
S2 million worth of supplies.
Started Ohio Raid
He started his last and long
est expedition - called the
Ohio Raid - on July 2. 1863.
Bragg had authorized him
to raid only in Kentucky to
hamper operations of Union
Maj. Gen. William S. Rose
crans who was threatening
Chattanooga, Tenn. Bragg ve
toed Morgan's plan to strike
across the Ohio River into
the untouched areas of In
diana and Ohio. But' Morgan
had other Ideas.
With 2,460 men and four
guns Morgan eluded 10,000
Federal cavalry who were
supposed to be on guard
against such raids, crossed
the Cumberland River at
Burkesville, Ky., and headed
north.
On July 4 he came to Tebbs
Bend on the Green River and
his first fight. He ran into a
small but determined Union
regiment of about 400 men,
the 25th Michigan command
ed by Col Orlando H. Moore,
another fighting man. The
Michiganders were strongly
entrenched.
In his best raiding style
Morgan sent a flag of truce to
Moore and demanded a sur
render. "If this were any other day,
I might, but on the Fourth of
July, I must have a brush
first," Moore replied.
Morgan assaulted Moore's
intrenchments with his troop
ers dismounted. The 11th
Kentucky was repulsed. The
5th Kentucky followed and
suffered the same fate.
That was enough for Mor
gan. He pulled out his troops
and rode around the Federals
with 36 killed and about 50
wounded. The Federals lost 9
killed and 26 wounded, one of
whom was Lizzie Compton, a
Canadian girl who had been
successfully masquerading
until a surgeon ripped open
her shirt to probe a shoulder
wound. Miss Compton recov
ered and was discharged
with honor. .
Brother Killed
The next day Morgan
fought the Federals again at
Lebanon, Ky., where his
brother, Tom, was killed.
Here he took 400 prisoners
and pushed north again to the
Ohio River where he crossed
on July 8 at Brandenburg,
Ky., on two captured steamers.
A day later he was in Croy
don, Ind., where he learned
from an innkeeper's daughter
that Lee had failed at Gettys
burg and that Vicksburg had
surrendered. This dashed
Morgan's hopes that he might
ride east into Pennsylvania
and join with Lee. But he
pushed on.
By this time all of Indiana
and much of Ohio was con
fused and fearful. Troops
were called from Michigan
and Illinois and from as far
away as Kansas. Indianapolis
shored up its defenses.
Farmers hid their horses.
Women and children took to
the woods. Home Guards
mustered at crossroads with
shotguns and flintlocks. As
often as they gathered they
were brushed aside by Mor
gan's men but each skirmish
slowed the raiders and speed
was essential.
The flying columns rode
Into Salem, Ind., turned
northeast and entered Ohio at
Harrison above Cincinnati.
They never stopped as they
skirted Cincinnati as that was
Federal headquarters for the
area and swarmed with
troops. Morgan's men rode 95
miles in 35 hours without rest
or food, stopping only to skir
mish. Probably no cavalry
ever rode that far in as short
a time. ' ;
But Federal Cavalry, which
had been riding hither and
yon over three stales with no
success, began to close in as
Morgan pushed east across
Ohio parallel to the river,
stopping only to remove bar
ricades and fight out of Home
Guard ambushcades.
Morgan headed for Bluff
lngton Island in the Ohio be
low Portland, Ohio. Here he
thought he could cross the
river and return to the South.
But he was trapped on July
19 by Federal cavalry and
gunboats. The battle went
against him and about 700 of
his men, under Col. Basil
Duke, his brother-in-law, sur
rendered. Auout 300 escaped
across the river.
Rod North
As Duke fought the Feder
als Morgan cut his way out
with about 1,000 men and
rode north.
On Sunday July 19 the raid
came to an end at Beaver
Creek, Ohio, near New Lis
bon. This was Morgan's far
thest north point.
Two fresh Union cavalry
regiments caught up with
him. He now had only about
400 men and he surrendered
without another fight. .
Of the 2,460 men Morgan
started with about 400 es
caped. The rest were cap
tured, killed, wounded, strag
gled or deserted. He had rid
den about 1,000 miles and ov
erall his men averaged about
20 hours per day in the sad
dle for the 25 days of the raid.
What did Morgan accom
plish? Not much, militarily.
He occupied some indefinite
numbers of troops who might
SECTION B
Medford
PAGES 1 to !
Tribune,
MEDFORD, OREGON. MONDAY, JULY 22, 1963
have reinforced Rosecrans.
He burned railroad stations
and bridges and frightened
two stales.
But the raid was spectacu
lar. And that was what Mor
gan liked.
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The
com-
- ilTIi
Unup Foreign A"'
mittce will be asked to recon
sider its action reiecting r.?
.trirtions on U. S. foreign aid
to Indonesia, it was learned
Saturday.
The move, sparked by aid
supporters who fear the Hou?e
would vote tougher limita
tions it the committee does
not act, if expected early this
week.
SJfs big
HI for Oregon's economy in Wm
1. 2'
1. $11,500,000 for 1,150 new flat cars, being built in Oregon
primarily for movement of finished lumber and other Oregon forest products. Builder of these
63-foot-long cars is Gunderson Bros. Engineering Corp., Portland. Initial 400-car order is
currently being delivered. Remaining 750 cars will be placed in service during the next sev
eral months.
!. Conversion of 750 standard box cars to wide-door design
for shipments of Oregon plywood. The new 10-foot doors on these 40-foot-long cars permit
fast mechanical loading and unloading. Diagonal door stripe codes cars for immediate return
to Oregon.
3. Another 500 dOUble-dOOr bOX Cars, added to S.P.'s wide-door fleet in
1962, and now assigned to Oregon service for hauling plywood and packaged lumber. Like
the newly converted wide-door box cars, these 50-foot-long, "yellow door" cars say, "Send
me back to Oregon.'
4. 1,300 new "king-sized" Hydra-Cushion box cars being delivered
to S.P. this summer and fall, are well suited for carrying paper, canned goods, and other
Oregon products needing extra protection. These new 60-foot carB can carry twenty percent
more freight than 50-foot box cars.
1, New "floating-load" tie-dOWn technique can speed loading and reduce
shipping costs for other forest products besides finished lumber. Here, twenty huge rolls of
paperboard ride secure and protected on one of S.P.'s new 63-foot, Oregon-built fiat cars.
t'hese latest additions to the Southern Pacific freight fleet are part of S.P.'s expanded, multi-million
dollar program to provide Oregon industries with the special equipment they need to move Oregon
products to market. Moreover, the stepped-up order for flat cars represents a significant contri
bution to Oregon's economy, both in dollar volume and in use of Oregon materials and manpower.
Overall, these new S.P. equipment purchases boost Southern Pacific's expenditures above $187
million for more than 19,000 new freight cars in the past six years.
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