The Twenty-Five Days of Morgan - July 16, 1863

Confederate brigadier general John H. Morgan’s raiders ride out of Locust Grove, Ohio, about 7:00 am. Their goal today is to cross the Scioto River before Union forces can block their path. Morgan splits his command to increase foraging opportunities in this hilly, sparsely populated region as well as to deceive Major General Ambrose Burnside and his Union commanders as to whether he will attack Chillicothe or Portsmouth, or neither. The main column heads directly northeast for the Scioto River crossing at Jasper, Ohio, while a large detachment rides southeast into Rarden as a feint toward Portsmouth. Morgan’s lead column passes through Poplar Grove, Arkoe, and Elm Grove. Flankers forage in Union Ridge and Smith Hill.

Ohio governor David Tod has given his state’s citizens the same advice that Indiana governor Morton had given to his Hoosiers: make the roads in front of Morgan difficult to use. Buckeye farmers and shopkeepers leave their communities today in small numbers to cut down trees and destroy bridges to block the few roads that cut through the forested hill country of Adams County and Pike County. Barriers of this nature, when combined with rough terrain, act as an effective method to slow an enemy’s march when the column contains artillery and wagons. Often, Morgan’s advance guard catches the brave locals in the act, and as punishment, the Confederates force these citizens to remove the barriers they have just created. Colonel Basil Duke, commander of Morgan’s First Brigade, remembers that “the militia, about this time, turned their attention seriously to felling trees, tearing up bridges, and impeding our progress in every conceivable way. The advanced guard was forced to carry axes to cut away the frequent blockades.” This work, added to the hard riding and fatigue Morgan’s men face, only make the raiders frustrated and unnerved. Tension builds within these veterans. The long, hard raiding is taking its toll on them physically and mentally.

Another source of frustration among the raiders is the poor quality of the horses in the North. Most horses in rural Indiana and Ohio are trained as workhorses, not as riding horses that could travel long distances. Duke writes:

One great drawback upon our marches, was the inferiority of the Indiana and Ohio horses for such service. After parting with our Kentucky stock, the men were compelled to exchange constantly. Sometimes three or four times in twenty-four hours. The horses obtained were, not only unable to endure the hard riding for a reasonable length of time, but they were also unshod and grew lame directly.

This fact makes exchanging horses in rough terrain even more difficult, because less horses are to be found in these regions where farms are small and few. Hobson’s Union cavalry experiences the same issue.

Union brigadier general Edward Hobson’s Provisional Cavalry Division departs its camp at Sardinia around 4:00 am. The Federal column enters Winchester, Ohio, later that morning and forages from its citizens, who have already been deprived of much of their property by Morgan’s troopers. At Winchester, Hobson gives Colonel Augustus Kautz a special mission. Hobson understands that a large portion of Kautz’s Ohio Brigade are residents of the southern counties of Ohio through which Morgan’s Division is moving. This allows the Provisional Division unique intelligence about the terrain and the best roads to use. Hobson orders Colonel Kautz to take four hundred of his best Buckeyes on the strongest horses and ride ahead of the rest of the Provisional Division. They will take no artillery or wagons with them, which have been hindering the speed of the Provisional Division. Kautz’s goal is to catch up to Morgan’s rear guard and engage it long enough to slow down its progress and allow Hobson to close the gap with Morgan’s troopers.

Kautz leads his hand-selected troopers through Jack Town (Jacksonville), where General Morgan had spent the previous night. From that place, Kautz takes the direct route to Jasper, knowing from his own experience and from those of his men who live in Pike County that Jasper and Piketon would be the best places to ford the Scioto River based on Morgan’s apparent course. Kautz’s brigade rides slowly yet steadily through the hilly terrain, but because of their intimate knowledge of the land, they can navigate in the darkness. They reach Jasper, Ohio, at 11:00 pm, only to find that the town’s bridges over the Ohio & Erie Canal had been destroyed by Morgan’s men. It will take five or six hours for Kautz’s exhausted troopers to repair one of the canal bridges, and so Kautz orders them to rest until daylight the next morning. Morgan’s wily cavalrymen have managed to stay ahead of their foes.

Hobson passes through Jack Town around 3:30 pm, where Kautz’s men had been only hours before. The Union cavalry division will stay in the saddle throughout the night and will not encamp until it reaches Jackson, Ohio, the next evening. It is the Provisional Division’s longest continuous ride on the raid – just over eighty miles.

Morgan’s men continue their march eastward from Elm Grove, Ohio, and burn the 125-foot covered bridge over Sunfish Creek east of town after sending a large flanking unit toward Yankee Hill. On the road to Jasper, about 1:00 pm, the Confederate main column’s vanguard discovers a barricade of felled trees across the road below the crest of Stoney Ridge. A small group of militiamen point their guns from behind the trees. The Union militia are forty home guards of the Pike County Military Committee, commanded by Captain Andrew Kilgore. General Morgan demands their surrender, but they refuse. Morgan directs some of Colonel Adam Johnson’s men to dismount and attack the barricade. Several ineffectual volleys are exchanged between the opposing forces, and Kilgore, knowing he is outnumbered, surrenders. No one on either side is hurt in the brief affair.

The Rebels disarm the Pike County militiamen and march them at the double-quick to Jasper under guard. During the four-mile march, the frustrated raiders verbally abuse the home guards for their stubbornness and their annoying tree-cutting. The Union captives remain silent except for one man – a forty-seven-year-old schoolteacher named Joseph McDougal. McDougal returns the insults to his captors, and their blood boils. When they finally reach Jasper, Ohio, Captain James W. Mitchell, 10th Kentucky Cavalry, is under orders to parole the captives from the Stoney Ridge incident. Mitchell questions the forty militiamen about the location of the nearest ford of the Scioto River, but none of them volunteers to show the raiders. Captain Mitchell, angered by the lack of response and the whole day’s situation, orders his men to tie up Joseph McDougal and place him alone in a boat on the canal. After Mitchell repeats his question, again with no responses received from the home guards, he orders two of his cavalrymen to shoot the loud-mouthed McDougal. McDougal is instantly killed. Someone finally gives in and tells where the ford is to be found. McDougal’s death will be the first of a few more killings of unarmed men in the Buckeye State that result from an exchange of harsh words.

Morgan’s raiders vent their anger upon the citizens of Jasper by burning the mills, barns, and stables in town and cleaning out its stores of their goods. After Morgan’s column finishes crossing the Ohio & Erie Canal, which runs through Jasper, the Rebels burn the canalboats and the bridges over the waterway. This final act will prove beneficial in slowing down Hobson’s pursuit.

Morgan’s Division fords the Scioto River over a half mile north of Jasper and enters Piketon, Ohio, around 3:00 pm. Besides the local home guards, whom the raiders rout without a shot, the Confederates find no Union forces anywhere near the town. Morgan has outwitted Burnside again. Lightning Ellsworth taps out false messages from the post office’s telegraph, which leads to the militia’s destruction of the Paint Creek Bridge at Chillicothe. The Rebel soldiers loot the stores and take horses and food from the civilians, and then leave Piketon toward Beaverton (Beaver). A small flanking party destroys the covered bridge over the Scioto River at Waverly, Ohio. It had been built in 1861 at a cost of $10,000.

Stopping Morgan has become an arduous task for Union army commander Ambrose Burnside. He looks for help from various sources across the Department of the Ohio. Burnside’s leader of the District of Ohio, Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox, sends a telegram today to Brigadier General Eliakim P. Scammon, who commands a division in the Kanawha River valley of West Virginia. The message directs Scammon to send a regiment or a battery to the Union supply depot at Gallipolis, Ohio, to protect it from Morgan.

Burnside also requests assistance from Governor Tod’s militia. Two days ago, Burnside had assigned Colonel Benjamin P. Runkle to Governor David Tod, who, in turn, had ordered Runkle to take command of the Ohio militia gathering under Colonel William R. Putnam at Camp Marietta in Marietta, Ohio. On the way there yesterday, Colonel Runkle had stopped at Chillicothe, Ohio, where he had received reports that Morgan might attack the city.

At Chillicothe, Runkle finds a force of 2,300 armed and 3,000 unarmed militiamen awaiting his instructions. When later today he realizes Morgan has only feinted toward the city, Colonel Runkle appropriates trains on the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, a branch of which passes through Chillicothe, Hamden, Berlin Crossroads, and Jackson. The trains will transport Runkle eastward with about 1,700 armed infantrymen of the Ohio militia. Their mission is to block Morgan’s path and slow his progress. After Runkle leaves Chillicothe with his troops, the city’s skittish citizens overact to Lightning Ellsworth’s false reports that Morgan will turn back to Chillicothe from Piketon. In their fright, the residents burn the Paint Street Bridge over Paint Creek, even though the creek is fordable at places nearby. Morgan’s troopers will get no closer than Waverly, Ohio.

Morgan’s soldiers pass through Zahn’s Corners and Givens before entering Beaverton (Beaver) around 7:00 pm. The women of the village cook food for the hungry Rebel horsemen. One Southern sympathizer, Carl Buehler, hands out glasses of wine to General Morgan and his men. The raiders steal liquor from three of Beaver’s stores, too. Morgan’s column is strung out from the difficult territory and lack of parallel roads. His rear guard will not exit Beaver until about 10:30 pm.

Provost Marshal C. W. Selfridge has few armed men to defend Jackson, Ohio, from the oncoming onslaught of Morgan’s Division. Most of the city’s able-bodied militiamen had been sent earlier to Portsmouth to protect that vital location. However, the few home guards left in town – mostly old men and young boys – erect a barricade on Main Street in front of the Isham House Hotel. They wait nervously behind the barricade for their foe to appear, which occurs at 9:30 pm when Captain Neil Helm, 10th Kentucky Cavalry, leads his soldiers along Main Street from the north. As the Rebels reach the top of the hill in front of the Gibson House Hotel, the home guards lose their cool and scatter through the streets, where the Confederates round them up and march them to the County Fairgrounds outside of town. The unfortunate home guards spend the night in the open air while Morgan’s guards have them corralled at the fairgrounds. General Morgan, in the meantime, registers for a room at the Isham House to spend the night there, and the hotel wait staff treat him with drinks and food service like the other guests. Colonel Duke and fifty other Confederates find rooms at the nearby Valley House Hotel. At the same time, the raiders burn the depot, roundtable, engine house, and railroad bridges of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad in and around town. The fires light the night sky, and their glow can be seen for miles around.

Far to the south, the ten steamboats transporting Brigadier General Henry Judah’s brigade of 1,150 cavalrymen and artillerymen land at the Ohio River wharf at Portsmouth, Ohio. It’s 4:00 pm, and word has already reached town that Morgan has crossed the Scioto River at Jasper, which is twenty-three miles distant. Judah telegraphs Burnside that he will acquire supplies and transportation for his brigade, and then they will march toward Portland and Oak Hill in Jackson County. Judah’s plan is to get in front of Morgan’s troopers while Hobson follows the raiders’ rear. Before departing Portsmouth at 9:00 pm to begin the brigade’s night ride, Judah gives his two guns and fifty artillerists of Thompson’s 11th Michigan Battery to Lieutenant Commander LeRoy Fitch’s army craft, Allegheny Belle, a steamboat that Burnside had specially outfitted with cotton bales to protect it from gunfire. The armed boat is partly manned by a Cincinnati company of Guthrie Greys militiamen under Captain William Disney, who had transferred their services from the steamer Magnolia. Fitch accepts the gift from Burnside and adds it to his flotilla of five U.S. Navy tinclads from the Mississippi Squadron that diligently patrol the waters of the Ohio River. They are the USS Moose, USS Reindeer, USS Victory, USS Springfield, and USS Naumkeag.

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.