The Twenty-Five Days of Morgan - July 15, 1863

Today begins the race for an Ohio River crossing, the last of four major barriers that Confederate general John H. Morgan had identified during the planning stage that could prevent the raid from being a success. Morgan wishes to cross the Ohio River into eastern Kentucky or West Virginia; he does not plan to cross near the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati, because Lieutenant Commander LeRoy Fitch’s gunboats could block his path, and the raid would be shortened. Instead, General Morgan intends to use a ford anywhere east of Hamilton County.

This morning, Morgan allows his roughly 1,960 men to sleep until 3:00 am. This has been their longest rest period since July 7, when they had encamped for much of the day at Garnettsville, Kentucky. Refreshed and anxious to get home, the raiders are in good spirits. General Morgan splits his command into two. He sends a large detachment under his brother, Colonel Richard Morgan, 14th Kentucky Cavalry, to scout the river fords in the area around Ripley, Ohio, and report back on the size of Union forces there and any U.S. Navy gunboats that may be present on the Ohio River. Meanwhile, General Morgan directs the main column east toward Winchester, Ohio, at which place he and his brother will rendezvous. As the rear guard departs Williamsburg, it burns the town’s newly constructed covered bridge that spans the East Fork of the Little Miami River. This act will not slow down the Union pursuers, because the river runs at a trickle and is easily fordable nearby.

Colonel Morgan leads his troopers from Williamsburg through Bethel, Ohio, the former home of Major General Ulysses S. Grant and his family while Grant was serving with the U.S. Army before the war. Around 9:30 am, the colonel and his raiders enter Georgetown, Ohio, which contains the boyhood home of Ulysses Grant. The Confederates do no extra harm to either town, besides their normal foraging for supplies, food, and horses from the citizens. The raiders respect Grant as an adversary, and General Morgan makes sure that his men take no unorthodox revenge upon families and friends of Union soldiers in the field.

Three hours later, the detachment departs Georgetown for Russellville and Red Oak, an abolitionist stronghold. From there, they head south to Ripley, where they discover a large Union militia force with artillery ensconced in the hills along Cornick’s Run outside of town. Ripley is one of the best-known abolitionist and Underground Railroad towns in America. Harriet Beecher Stowe immortalized some of Ripley’s inhabitants in her famous 1852 anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Colonel Morgan is under orders to not engage Union forces, if avoidable, and he follows this instruction.

However, from the top of a nearby river bluff, Colonel Morgan and his scouts survey the Ohio River for several miles. They spot gunboats of Lieutenant Commander LeRoy Fitch’s flotilla, whose sailors are sinking Union citizens’ skiffs and flatboats to prevent Morgan’s men from using them. The U. S. Navy does not want a repeat of the fiasco at Burkesville, Kentucky, where Morgan’s Division used private skiffs and flatboats to float all the men, horses, and equipment across a flooded Cumberland River. Because of the presence of the Fitch’s gunboats, the Ohio River fords are blocked in this vicinity.

The colonel has enough intelligence to share with General Morgan, and so the Confederate detachment turns north toward Winchester. They ride through Decatur and Eckmansville, where the raiders accidently shoot William Johnston, an old man whom the Confederates think has sniped at them as they enter town. The contingent finally passes through North Liberty (Cherry Fork), Ohio, before meeting the main column south of Youngsville.

In the meantime, the Confederate general successfully leads his column from Williamsburg through Mt. Orab and Sardinia. Along the way, the raiders encounter Union home guards at Fincastle, Ohio, and brush them aside after a short fight. Morgan’s men burn several covered bridges to help delay Brigadier General Edward Hobson’s Union force. The main Rebel column enters Winchester, Ohio, about 9:00 am, and General Morgan sets up headquarters at the Nicholas Bunn House Hotel.

Colonel Richard Morgan reports to General Morgan at the Bunn House during the early afternoon. After discussing the situation on the Ohio River, General Morgan orders his soldiers in town to congregate at the Winchester Cemetery on the east side of the village. There, the general gives a short speech to his men in which he explains that he intends for them to cross the Ohio River in southeast Ohio, and that they are still a few days away from safety. He wishes to avoid the enemy gunboats, which should not be able to navigate upstream of Portsmouth at this time of year. The raiders will travel ahead of the gunboats by riding east to the Scioto River and fording that stream before Union forces can intercept them.

With the conference concluded and his men resupplied with horses, food, accoutrements, and non-military items from the town’s stores and homes, General Morgan rides out of Winchester at the head of his troopers around 4:00 pm. The main column splits into multiple, parallel columns, one of which goes through Tranquility to Locust Grove, where it will spend the night in camp. The main column follows the general to Harshaville, Unity, and Dunkinsville, from where Morgan sends a detachment on a feint toward West Union. Panic among West Union’s citizens sets in, and their home guards fell trees to protect the town. The county treasurer removes $7,000 from the courthouse for safekeeping in his father’s pigsty. However, the raiders never get any closer than Dunkinsville.

Instead, the Rebel chieftain uses the deception to take the main column north along the old Zane’s Trace. The advanced guard reaches Locust Grove at twilight, while the rest of the strung-out column camps along Zane’s Trace at various places, such as at the Wickerham Inn in Palestine, Ohio, and other public establishments and farms for six miles to the rear. The rear guard enters Jacksonville (Jack Town), Ohio, before dark, and General Morgan pays for a bed at the town’s Kilpatrick Inn. The owner of the inn is a member of the Masonic order, and because the general is a Mason, he promises that no one in his division would steal from the inn’s proprietor. Mrs. Kilpatrick cooks a nice meal for Morgan and his officers, and Morgan is so appreciative of the woman’s hospitality that he gives her his cape the next morning in gratitude. The cape would remain in the hands of Kilpatrick family well into the twentieth century.

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Edward Hobson’s Union division of cavalry and artillery depart their camp at Mulberry, Ohio, around 2:00 am. Before leaving Mulberry, Colonel William P. Sanders, with his 250-man Michigan Cavalry Brigade and two pieces of artillery, report to General Hobson at his headquarters at the Charles P. Harker house. Many of Sanders’s cavalry and artillery that had been left behind at Westport, Kentucky, “for want of transportation” would be assigned to Covington Barracks. A portion of these Wolverines under Colonel James David join General Henry Judah’s brigade later today, while another large detachment of them will participate in the last stage of the raid.

Hobson’s Provisional Cavalry Division, strengthened by the needed reinforcements, is guided on its journey by a local Methodist minister. The minister, either being terrible with directions or a Southern sympathizer, takes the Provisional Division on a long, roundabout route through Perintown, Mt. Carmel, Batavia (9:00 am arrival here), and Afton, Ohio, before finally reconnecting to Morgan’s path at Williamsburg around 1:00 pm. Hobson is furious, because he realizes he has lost the valuable time that he had gained the previous evening. Hobson continues east through Mt. Orab, but he is forced to encamp his men at Sardinia at 11:00 pm, after one of the longest rides yet (about 40 miles) for these diehard Union soldiers. Most fall exhausted in the streets of town and in the farmyards of the surrounding area. Some, like Major James McIntire of the 7th Ohio Cavalry, spend the night in their families’ homes. Morgan’s Raid proves to be an emotional reunion for these Buckeye soldiers. Many men in Colonel August Kautz’s Ohio Brigade, including Colonel Kautz, live in this region and will ride close by their hometowns. This situation will be a benefit to General Hobson in the coming days.

Brigadier General Henry Judah’s brigade of approximately 1,150 cavalrymen and artillery leave at 4:00 pm from the Cincinnati wharf on ten steamboats. Major General Ambrose Burnside does not have enough replacement horses or supplies to allow Judah to take two hundred of his men along for the ride, so they are left behind at Covington Barracks (Camp Covington) a mile south of Covington, Kentucky, to await orders. Most of these men are from the 11th Kentucky (US) Cavalry. However, he receives approximately one hundred fifty reinforcements under Colonel David who were not able to accompany Colonel Sanders’s Michigan Cavalry Brigade to Mulberry, Ohio. Judah and his refitted brigade sleep soundly on the steamboats as they chug up the Ohio River throughout the night.

Tonight, upon the agreement of Indiana governor Oliver Morton, General Burnside orders General Orlando Willcox to deactivate the Legionnaires and volunteer forces from Indiana and provide transportation to send them home. Many Hoosier regiments have reached Cincinnati, and one group of mounted Indiana militiamen have made it as far east as Batavia, Ohio. All will start back for the Hoosier State by nightfall. The task to stop General Morgan and his indomitable raiders is now left to the Buckeyes.

Sources:

Cahill, Lora Schmidt, and David L. Mowery. Morgan’s Raid Across Ohio: The Civil War Guidebook of the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail. Columbus, OH: Ohio Historical Society, 2014, p. 19-315.

Duke, Basil W. A History of Morgan's Cavalry. Cincinnati, OH: Miami Printing and Publishing Co., 1867, pp. 402-465.

Johnson, Adam R. The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army. Louisville, KY: George G. Fetter Co., 1904, pp. 142-150, 438-467.

Mowery, David L. Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2013, pp. 85-165.

U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Ser. 1, Vol. 23, Pt. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901, pp. 11-15, 632-818.