The Twenty-Five Days of Morgan - July 5, 1863

General Morgan’s next target is the Union supply depot in Lebanon, Kentucky. It is important for the raiders to capture the town because their short wagon train, which has now grown longer from the dozens of wounded being transported in ambulances, allows the division to move quickly though enemy territory. The Confederates must live off the land to resupply themselves with food, ammunition, accoutrements, fresh horses, and other supplies and thus reduce the size of their wagon train.

Defending the Federal supply depot is Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Hanson with 380 men of the battle-hardened 20th Kentucky US Infantry and a company of the 9th Kentucky US Cavalry. Hanson is the estranged brother of Confederate brigadier general Roger Hanson, who had been killed at the Battle of Stone’s River only six months earlier. Ironically, Charley Hanson had been a friend of John Morgan before the war, and many of the men in the 20th Kentucky were former friends and relatives of soldiers in Morgan’s Division. This would become a truly tragic “brother against brother” confrontation.

In the meantime, Morgan detaches one of his best crack units – Captain Ralph Sheldon and Company C, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry – to Bardstown, Kentucky, to clear the town of resistance. Sheldon finds a determined little band of twenty-five cavalrymen from the 4th US Cavalry under Lieutenant Thomas W. Sullivan. After exchanging shots with Sheldon’s pickets, Sullivan has his soldiers barricade themselves within a livery stable. Sheldon’s cavalrymen charge the stable, but they are turned back with losses. Sheldon calls upon Sullivan to surrender, but the Union officer refuses, saying, “I hope to gain the esteem of General Morgan by a gallant defense.” Sheldon resorts to besieging the livery for the rest of the day.

Back at Lebanon, Hanson has prepared as best he could for the inevitable onslaught. His soldiers have constructed barricades across the Campbellsville Pike and have placed their lone 24-pounder cannon behind them. The Louisville & Nashville spur-line depot and other buildings in town would serve as defensive strongholds.

Morgan deploys the skirmishers of his two brigades across a two-mile front, and he has Captain Byrne unlimber his artillery on Bricken’s Hill within range of the town. At 7:00 am, the artillery lets loose a salvo, after which Morgan sends his adjutant, Robert Alston, to Hanson under a flag of truce to demand an immediate and unconditional surrender. Hanson politely refuses, having been ordered by General Ambrose Burnside that morning to hold his ground until reinforcements arrive. Alston warns Hanson to evacuate the civilians. The battle is on.

Bryne begins his bombardment of Lebanon before the citizens have time to get out of town. Chaos fills the streets. Meanwhile, Morgan’s two-mile wide line advances steadily over the fields toward the town. The Union men of the Bluegrass State fire a deadly volley into their familiar opponents, but the unwavering Confederate line continues forward. For two hours, the two sides exchange fire, but Morgan’s overwhelming numbers cause the Union line to collapse and fall back into the designated buildings within town. A mounted charge down the Campbellsville Turnpike overruns the Union line at the barricade and captures the single Federal cannon.

Intense and bloody street fighting ensues. For four hours, the Union defenders ensconced within the buildings hold out against Morgan’s raiders, who must clear each stronghold of the enemy one by one. Frustration and exhaustion build among the Confederates. They are flabbergasted by Hanson’s stiff resistance.

Eventually, every fortified building falls to the Confederates except one – the railroad depot. There, Hanson and his remaining Union soldiers prepare themselves for a last stand. The 8th Kentucky Cavalry and 14th Kentucky Cavalry attempt a mounted charge upon the depot, but heavy casualties force the Rebels to dismount, lay prone on the ground, and take cover. Captain Tom Franks is seriously wounded in the assault; he becomes the third leader of the scouts to fall within four days.

While one-by-one his other regiments fail to take the depot, Morgan tries to convince Hanson to surrender by threatening to burn the town. Hanson never gets the message. Next, Morgan tries to blast the depot with his artillery, but to no avail except to set the depot’s roof on fire. An hour passes, but the fighting continues with even more ferocity than ever. Morgan’s time is running out, because he receives word from his pickets that a Union cavalry force (under Colonel James I. David) is only three miles away and closing. Finally, Morgan orders forward the veteran 2nd Kentucky Cavalry, which has gained experience in street fighting from its previous action in September 1862 at the Battle of Augusta, Kentucky. The 2nd Kentucky Cavalry will storm the depot no matter the cost. The 5th Kentucky Cavalry, in support, will attack the depot from a different direction.

At 1:00 pm, the brave soldiers of Morgan’s old 2nd Kentucky Cavalry regiment rush forward on foot toward the south and east sides of the depot and immediately receive a heavy fire from Hanson’s determined defenders. Private Bennett H. Young of the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, who has been pinned down for hours outside the depot, remembers that the 2nd Kentucky “required almost superhuman courage to undertake this act, yet it was done with a calmness that would thrill every observer.” Among those assaulting the depot is Lieutenant Tom Morgan. He is instantly killed by a gunshot through his chest, and he falls into the arms of his older brother, Calvin. General Morgan learns of his brother’s death and becomes angry. He orders the empty buildings around the depot to be set ablaze while the Confederates poke their guns into the windows of the depot to force Hanson and his survivors to seek cover in the interior. Hanson sees the firing of the town and finally raises a white flag at 1:20 pm. Hanson loses three killed, sixteen wounded, and 360 captured in the Battle of Lebanon. Morgan’s Division counts thirteen killed, twenty-six wounded, and seventeen captured. Many men of the 20th Kentucky US Infantry later remember the battle as their hardest fight of the war.

As Hanson and his men file out of the burning depot, Captain Charlton Morgan, another of General Morgan’s brothers, grabs Charley Hanson’s beard and yells into his face, “I’ll blow your brains out, you damned rascal!” This incites an already exhausted, angry, and saddened crowd of raiders to level their guns and threaten to shoot the prisoners. General Morgan steps in between the prisoners and his men, pulls out his pistols, and with tears streaming down his face, yells out that he would kill the first man who tries to harm a prisoner. Then, turning to Hanson, the general says, “Charles, when you go home, if it is any source of gratification to you, tell Mother you killed brother Tom.” None of the prisoners are harmed.

The Confederates take out their frustrations on the civilians by looting their stores and burning twenty buildings. The raiders also gather the precious supplies and ammunition from the military warehouses and confiscate the Federal wagons for their own use.

Around 2:00pm, the Michigan cavalry under Colonel James I. David is reported to be just outside of town. Mysteriously, they have used up nearly half a day to move four miles! There is no time for Morgan’s men to linger any longer in Lebanon to parole the prisoners they have captured. While Colonel David’s artillery fires on Morgan’s hurried rear guard, the prisoners are marched on foot eight miles to Springfield at the double-quick behind the Confederate horsemen, with no benefit of water on an extremely hot, humid day. The Rebel guards steal shoes and hats from the prisoners. One of the captives is clubbed to death. Those captives who fall from heat exhaustion are left to die or are trampled over by the artillery. Only a timely thunderstorm ends the brutality. It is one of the few recorded instances when Morgan’s troopers treated their prisoners of war badly.

In the meantime, General Shackelford’s Federal brigade is on the move from Columbia and arrives in Campbellsville later this evening. General Hobson’s troopers reach Greensburg, Kentucky, by nightfall. Having left Jamestown, Kentucky, yesterday afternoon, Wolford’s and Kautz’s Union brigades are riding toward Lebanon. Out of fear of losing his wagon train to the enemy, Colonel James I. David takes his Michigan brigade east toward Danville, Kentucky, without trying to pursue Morgan.

Sources:

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.

Gorin, Betty J. “Morgan Is Coming!” Confederate Raiders in the Heartland of Kentucky. Louisville, KY: Harmony House Publishers, 2006, pp. 99-260.

Mowery, David L. Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2013, pp. 15-72.

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.

“The Great Raid, Summer 1863.” Trails-R-Us (Kentucky)—John Hunt Morgan Home Page, http://www.trailsrus.com/morgan/map.html.