Brig. General John Hunt Morgan (CSA)

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Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on June 1, 1825. Educated at Transylvania University, he fought in the Mexican War as a first lieutenant in the Kentucky Mounted Volunteers and saw action at the battle of Buena Vista. Morgan married Rebecca Bruce in 1848. Working as a hemp manufacturer in Lexington, Morgan became a Mason and an active community leader, serving on the school board and city council and as captain of the fire department.

From 1852 to 1854 he served as captain of an artillery company in the state militia. In 1857 he formed the Lexington Rifles and attached the unit to the state guard militia in 1860. Morgan initially supported Kentucky neutrality, but in September 1861, on his own authority, he led the Lexington Rifles in a series of guerrilla raids before officially joining the Confederacy as a captain of cavalry in October 1861.

In April 1862 Morgan was promoted to colonel and continued his raiding activities, earning the sobriquet “Francis Marion of the War.” He led a squadron at the battle of Shiloh. On a raid from Knoxville to Cynthiana, Kentucky, from July 4-28, 1862, he recruited three hundred volunteers for the Confederate cause. On August 12, 1862, Morgan successfully disrupted General Don Carlos Buell’s campaign against Chattanooga by burning the twin Louisville and Nashville Railroad tunnels near Gallatin, which were vital links in the Union supply line. Embarrassed by this loss, Buell sent his entire cavalry force against Morgan and suffered a rout, including the capture of General Richard Johnson. Morgan’s success emboldened Confederate plans for a Kentucky invasion, and Morgan’s cavalry joined General Braxton Bragg in the Perryville campaign. On December 7, 1862, Morgan captured a garrison of 1,834 Union troops at Hartsville, Tennessee.

In Murfreesboro, on December 14, 1862, Morgan, widowed since 1861, married seventeen-year-old Martha “Mattie” Ready in what was the highlight of the city’s winter social season. Most of the Confederate high command attended the ceremony, which was performed by Lieutenant General (and Bishop) Leonidas Polk. This marriage produced a daughter, Johnnie, who was born after Morgan’s death. Two weeks after the wedding, Morgan’s troops participated in raids during the battle of Stones River, diverting Union troops from assisting General William S. Rosecrans’s army.

During his raids, Morgan often avoided direct combat through tactical plans which involved ruse and deception, including intercepting telegraph messages and sending out false ones to Union commands. During 1862 his command grew from 325 to a division of 3,900 and he was promoted to brigadier general on December 11, 1862.

In early 1863, as Union cavalry in the western theater gained proficiency and strength, Morgan began suffering losses in his confrontations. In an attempt to recoup some lost prestige and morale, he embarked on his legendary “Great Raid.” Morgan led his troops on an unauthorized raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. During the raid, which lasted from July 1 to 26, 1863, Morgan spread panic in each successive town he approached, encountering hastily convened militia who offered relatively weak resistance. Passing through southern Indiana, he crossed into Ohio at Harrison, and moved within seven miles of Cincinnati. Captured with most of his command at West Point, Ohio, Morgan escaped from the Ohio State Penitentiary on November 27, 1863, and returned to Kentucky. His “Great Raid” was the northernmost incursion of western Confederate troops and served to bolster Southern morale after Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg. It also served to secure Morgan’s legendary status among Civil War generals.

Despite the Confederate high command’s anger at his unauthorized, impetuous raid, he was restored to command. Reports of looting by Morgan’s men during an unsuccessful raid near Cynthiana, Kentucky, in June 1864 led to his suspension from command and the scheduling of a court of inquiry for September 10. Morgan was surprised by Federal soldiers in Greeneville, Tennessee, on September 4, and died attempting to escape. Originally buried in Richmond, Virginia, his body was moved to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1868.

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John Hunt Morgan was born Wednesday, June 1, 1825, at 310 South Green Street in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1831, his father, Calvin, lost his Alabama home because he couldn?t pay the taxes. He accepted his father-in-law?s offer to move to Lexington, Kentucky, and manage one of the Hunt farms in Fayette County. Their family moved into a two-story farmhouse on Tates Creek Road. John Morgan was six years old when they relocated to Kentucky.

At age seventeen, John enrolled at Transylvania College in Lexington in 1842 and joined the Adelphi Society, a literary fraternity. In June of 1844, he had a duel with a fraternity brother. Neither was seriously hurt. Following this incident on July 4, 1844, the college?s Board of Trustees expelled him from the school.

He was married twice. First to Rebecca Gratz Bruce of Lexington (1830-1861) was eighteen-years-old when she was married November 21, 1848 to John, twenty-three. In September 1853, she had a stillborn son. As an aftereffect of her pregnancy, Rebecca developed a blood clot in her leg.

After eight years of suffering, she died an invalid and childless at age thirty-one. John would be a widower for two years before he met and married his second wife, Martha "Mattie" Ready of Murfreesboro, Tennessee (1840-1887). She was twenty-two when she married John who was then thirty-seven. They had two daughters. The first was born November 27, 1863, and lived only one day. Their second, Johnnie, was born April 7, 1865, following John?s death.

His grandfather, John Wesley Hunt, was an early founder of Lexington and one of the wealthiest men west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is said that he was Lexington?s first millionaire. He had significant investments in merchandising, manufacturing, banking and government securities

John Morgan stood arrow-straight at six feet tall, weighed 185 pounds. He had curly sandy hair and gray eyes. Early in the Civil War, Carrie Pyncheon of Huntsville wrote in her diary, "Before the town was occupied by the Yankees, I spent an evening with Captain Jack [John] Morgan, our second Marion. He was so mild and gentle in his manners that I would not have taken him for a soldier but for his boots and spurs, so unwarrior-like did he seem."

As the war began, he was elected captain of the Morgan Squadron, which formed the nucleus of the 2nd KY cavalry. By the end of 1862, he rose through the ranks and was a brigadier general at the time of the Ohio-Indiana raid.

To the South, he was one of their greatest, their Robin Hood. Northern newspapers called him "The King of Horse Thieves, a bandit, a freebooter, no better than a thug." In the South, he was admired as the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy."

"I want to be a cavalryman And with John Hunt Morgan ride, A colt revolver in my belt A saber by my side. I want a pair of epaulets to match my suit of gray, The uniform my mother made  And lettered 'CSA'. "

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Sources

Family Data Collection - Births

Name: John Hunt Morgan

Father: Calvin C Morgan

Mother: Henrietta Hunt

Birth Date: 1 Jun 1825

City: Huntsville

County: Madison

State: AL

Country: USA

American Civil War General Officers

about John Hunt Morgan

State Served: Kentucky

Highest Rank: Brigadier General

Birth Date: 1825

Death Date: 1864

Birth Place: Huntsville, Alabama

Army: Confederacy

Promotions: Promoted to Full Colonel (2nd KY Cav)

Promoted to Full Brig-Gen

Biography: Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan

Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan was born at Huntsville,

Ala., June 1, 1825, but was reared in Kentucky from the age of

four years, upon the farm near Lexington to which his parents

removed. He was the eldest of six brothers, of whom all bore

arms for the Confederacy. It is said that he was a lineal

descendant of Daniel Morgan, of Revolutionary fame.

His first military experience was at the time of the war with

Mexico, when he had the rank of lieutenant in Capt. O. P.

Beard's company, General Marshall's cavalry, and in later

years he was captain of the Lexington Rifles. During the

period following the Mexican war he devoted himself with

success to manufacturing.

On April 16, 1861, he telegraphed President Davis: "Twenty

thousand men can be raised to defend southern liberty against

northern conquest. Do you want them?" But he was not

encouraged to immediate action.

In September he was arrested by Home Guards while conveying

jeans cloth southward from his factory, and imprisoned for

three days; and in the latter part of that month he joined the

Confederate forces at Bowling, mustered in November 5th.

He became a colonel in the summer of 1862, when he organized

the Second cavalry at Chattanooga. Then, in July, he won fame

by his first Kentucky raid. In August he covered the front of

Bragg's army concentrating at McMinnville, Tenn., with

victorious engagements at Gallatin and Hartsville.

During Bragg's occupation of Kentucky, part of his men

advanced to the Ohio river at Augusta. On October 18th, he

captured several hundred Federals at Lexington, after a severe

fight. On the return to Tennessee he was given command of a

cavalry brigade, composed of his own regiment and the Seventh,

Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Kentucky cavalry.

On December 7th, he won a brilliant victory at Hartsville. On

the 11th he was commissioned brigadier-general. Then followed

his "Christmas raid" in Kentucky, which, with his previous

exploits, elicited a resolution of thanks from Congress.

His cavalry division was now formed, the First brigade

including the Second, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Kentucky and

Ninth Tennessee regiments; the Second brigade, the Third,

Eighth, Eleventh and Tenth Kentucky. Taking position on the

right of Bragg's army in middle Tennessee, he fought the enemy

at Vaught's Hill, Milton, Liberty, and Snow's Hill, March 19th

to April 3rd, and on May 10th defeated the Federals in

southeast Kentucky, at the battle of Greasy Creek.

On June 27th, as Rosecrans advanced to force Bragg from

Tennessee, General Morgan started out from Sparta, to draw off

the Federal strength by an invasion of the Northwest. It

happened that his heaviest fighting was in Kentucky.

Colonel Chenault, Major Brent, and many other brave men fell

at Green River bridge, July 4th, and at Lebanon young Thomas

H. Morgan was killed.

After a circuit through Indiana and Ohio around Cincinnati, he

attempted to recross the Ohio river at Buffington island, July

19th. But after a spirited battle, Colonel Duke and part of

his command were captured, and Morgan, with the remainder,

forced to continue eastward.

On the 26th, Colonels Grigsby and Johnson, with 300 or 400

men, forded the river, and Morgan himself was halfway across

when he saw that most of his men must be captured, and

returned to share their fate.

He and his officers were treated rather as criminals than

military prisoners, and confined, with the usual indignities,

in the Ohio State prison. But before the end of the year he

had escaped with six companions, and passed through Kentucky

and Tennessee to the Confederate lines.

In January, 1864, he was given authority to reorganize his

command, and in the following month, at his own request, was

ordered from Decatur, GA, to Abingdon, Va. There he had the

duty of defending the salt works and lead mines, soon

threatened by formidable columns under Crook and Burbridge.

He checked Crook at Wytheville in May, and then made a raid in

Kentucky to compel the retreat of Burbridge. On June 8th he

took Mt. Sterling and 400 men, and on the 11th captured

General Hobson and 1,800 men at Cynthiana.

But Burbridge was in close pursuit, and Morgan was badly

defeated on the 12th. Overwhelmed by misfortune, he yet

demonstrated his great nature by renewed efforts to defend his

territory.

The enemy having penetrated Bull's Gap in August, he was

advancing on that post with about 1,000 men when attacked at

Greeneville, Tenn., at daylight, September 4th, by Gillem's

cavalry. While escaping from the house in which he had passed

the night, he was shot and killed. His body, shamefully

treated at the time, was afterward interred with honor in the

cemetery at Lexington.

Source: Confederate Military History, vol. XI, p. 245

_______

Early life and career

John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan. He was an uncle of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan and a grandson of John Wesley Hunt, an early founder of Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also the brother-in-law of A.P. Hill and of Basil W. Duke.[2]

Morgan's father lost his Huntsville home in 1831 when he was unable to pay the property taxes following the failure of his pharmacy. The family then moved to Lexington, where Calvin Morgan would manage one of Hunt's sprawling farms. Morgan also attended Transylvania College for two years, but was suspended in June 1844 for dueling with a fraternity brother. In 1846, Morgan joined the Freemasons, as had his father before him.

In 1846 Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Army as a cavalry private during the Mexican-American War, and saw combat at the Battle of Buena Vista. On his return to Kentucky, he became a hemp manufacturer and eventually took over his grandfather's prosperous mercantile business. In 1848, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce, 18-year-old sister of Morgan's business partner. Morgan raised a militia artillery company in 1852, but it was disbanded two years later.

In 1853, Morgan's wife delivered a stillborn son. Rebecca Morgan contracted septic thrombophlebitis, an infection of a blood clot in a vein, which eventually led to an amputation. Relations with his wife's family suffered over different views on slavery and with her health problems. In 1857, Morgan raised an independent infantry company known as the "Lexington Rifles," and spent much of his free time drilling them.

[edit] Civil War service

John Hunt Morgan Memorial in downtown Lexington, Kentucky

Like most Kentuckians, Morgan did not initially support secession. Immediately after Lincoln's election in November 1860, he wrote to his brother, Thomas Hunt Morgan, then a student at Kenyon College in northern Ohio, "Our State will not I hope secede[.] have no doubt but Lincoln will make a good President at least we ought to give him a fair trial & then if he commits some overt act all the South will be a unit." By the following spring, Tom Morgan (who also had opposed Kentucky's secession) had transferred home to the Kentucky Military Institute and there began to support the Confederacy. Just before the fourth of July, he quietly left for Camp Boone, just across the Tennessee border, by way a steamer from Louisville to enlist in the Kentucky State Guard. John stayed at home in Lexington to tend to his troubled business and his ailing wife. Becky Morgan finally died on July 21, 1861. In September, Captain Morgan and his militia company went to Tennessee and joined the Confederate States Army. Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment and became its colonel on April 4, 1861.[2]

Morgan and his cavalrymen fought at the Battle of Shiloh in May 1862, and he soon became a symbol to secessionists in their hopes for obtaining Kentucky for the Confederacy. A Louisiana writer, Robert D. Patrick, compared Morgan to Francis Marion and wrote that "a few thousands of such men as his would regain us Kentucky and Tennessee." In his first Kentucky raid, Morgan left Knoxville on July 4, 1862, with almost 900 men and in three weeks he swept through Kentucky, deep in the rear of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army. He reported the capture of 1,200 Federal soldiers, whom he paroled, acquired several hundred horses, and destroyed massive quantities of supplies. He unnerved Kentucky's Union military government and President Abraham Lincoln received so many frantic appeals for help that he complained that "they are having a stampede in Kentucky." Historian Kenneth M. Noe wrote that Morgan's feat "in many ways surpassed J.E.B. Stuart's celebrated 'Ride around McClellan' and the Army of the Potomac the previous spring." The success of Morgan's raid was one of the key reasons that the Confederate Heartland Offensive of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith was launched later that fall, assuming that tens of thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army if they invaded the state.[3]

Morgan was promoted to brigadier general (his highest rank) on December 11, 1862.[2] He received the thanks of the Confederate Congress on May 1, 1863 for his raids on the supply lines of Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans in December and January, most notably his victory at the Battle of Hartsville on December 7.[4] Also in December, Morgan married Martha "Mattie" Ready, the daughter of Tennessee United States Representative Charles Ready and a cousin of William T. Haskell, another former U.S. representative from Tennessee.

[edit] Morgan's Raid

Hoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of Vicksburg and the Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as "Morgan's Raid". Morgan crossed the Ohio River, and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio. After many skirmishes and battles, during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers[citation needed], Morgan's raid almost ended on July 19, 1863, at Buffington Island, Ohio, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. (Intercepted by Union gunboats, less than 200 of his men succeeded in crossing.) Most of Morgan's men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas Prisoner of War camp in Chicago, which had a very high death rate. On July 26, near Salineville, Ohio (actually closer to New Lisbon-now called just Lisbon), Morgan and his exhausted, hungry and saddlesore soldiers were finally forced to surrender.

On November 27, Morgan and six of his officers, most notably Thomas Hines, escaped from their cells in the Ohio Penitentiary by digging a tunnel from Hines' cell into the inner yard and then ascending a wall with a rope made from bunk coverlets and a bent poker iron. Morgan and three of his officers, shortly after midnight, boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning. Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot, and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River. Through the assistance of sympathizers, they eventually made it to safety in the South. Coincidentally, the same day Morgan escaped, his wife gave birth to a daughter, who died shortly afterwards before Morgan returned home.

General John Hunt Morgan

Though Morgan's Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press and caused the Union leadership considerable concern, it is now regarded as little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war. Furthermore, it was done in direct violation of his orders from Gen. Braxton Bragg not to cross the river. Despite the Raiders' best efforts, Union forces had amassed nearly 110,000 Union militia in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; dozens of United States Navy gunboats along the Ohio; and strong Federal cavalry forces, which doomed the raid from the beginning. The cost of the raid to the Federals was extensive, with claims for compensation still being filed against the U.S. government well into the early 20th century. However, the Confederacy's irreplaceable loss of some of the finest light cavalry[citation needed]in American history far outweighed the Union's replaceable losses in equipment and supplies. When taken in together with the defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the loss of Morgan's cavalry brigade dealt another serious blow to Confederate morale.

[edit] Late career and death

After his return from Ohio, Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg. On August 22, 1864, Morgan was placed in command of the Trans-Allegheny Department, embracing at the time the Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.[5]

However the men he was assigned were in no way comparable to those he had lost. Morgan once again began raiding into Kentucky, but his men lacked discipline and he was either not willing or able to control them, leading to open pillaging as well as high casualties. By now Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditry[citation needed], likely leading to his removal from command. He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville, Tennessee.[1]

On September 4, 1864, he was surprised and killed while attempting to escape capture during a Union raid on Greeneville, Tennessee. His men always believed that he had been murdered to prevent a second escape from prison, but it seems he was simply shot because he refused to halt.

Morgan was buried in Lexington Cemetery. The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child, another daughter.

source: wikipedia

John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American Civil War.

Morgan is best known for Morgan's Raid in 1863, when he led 2,460 troops racing past Union lines into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in July 1863. This would be the farthest north any uniformed Confederate troops penetrated during the war.

John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan. He was an uncle of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan and a grandson of John Wesley Hunt, an early founder of Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also the brother-in-law of A.P. Hill and of Basil W. Duke.

In 1846, Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Army as a cavalry private during the Mexican-American War, and saw combat at the Battle of Buena Vista. On his return to Kentucky, he became a hemp manufacturer and eventually took over his grandfather's prosperous mercantile business. In 1848, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce, 18-year-old sister of Morgan's business partner. Morgan raised a militia artillery company in 1852, but it was disbanded two years later.

Like most Kentuckians, Morgan did not initially support secession. Immediately after Lincoln's election in November 1860, he wrote to his brother, Thomas Hunt Morgan, then a student at Kenyon College in northern Ohio, "Our State will not I hope secede, I have no doubt but Lincoln will make a good President at least we ought to give him a fair trial & then if he commits some overt act all the South will be a unit." Neverthless, in September 1861, Captain Morgan and his militia company went to Tennessee and joined the Confederate States Army. Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment and became its colonel on April 4, 1862.

Morgan and his cavalrymen fought at the Battle of Shiloh in May 1862, and he soon became a symbol to secessionists in their hopes for obtaining Kentucky for the Confederacy. A Louisiana writer, Robert D. Patrick, compared Morgan to Francis Marion and wrote that "a few thousands of such men as his would regain us Kentucky and Tennessee." In his first Kentucky raid, Morgan left Knoxville on July 4, 1862, with almost 900 men and in three weeks he swept through Kentucky, deep in the rear of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army. He reported the capture of 1,200 Federal soldiers, whom he paroled, acquired several hundred horses, and destroyed massive quantities of supplies. He unnerved Kentucky's Union military government and President Abraham Lincoln received so many frantic appeals for help that he complained that "they are having a stampede in Kentucky." Historian Kenneth M. Noe wrote that Morgan's feat "in many ways surpassed J.E.B. Stuart's celebrated 'Ride around McClellan' and the Army of the Potomac the previous spring." The success of Morgan's raid was one of the key reasons that the Confederate Heartland Offensive of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith was launched later that fall, assuming that tens of thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army if they invaded the state.

Morgan was promoted to brigadier general (his highest rank) on December 11, 1862, though the Promotion Orders were not signed by President Davis until December 14, 1862. He received the thanks of the Confederate Congress on May 1, 1863 for his raids on the supply lines of Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans in December and January, most notably his victory at the Battle of Hartsville on December 7. Also on December 14, Morgan married Martha "Mattie" Ready, the daughter of Tennessee United States Representative Charles Ready and a cousin of William T. Haskell, another former U.S. representative from Tennessee.

Hoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as "Morgan's Raid". Morgan crossed the Ohio River, and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio. At Corydon, Indiana the raiders met 450 local Home Guard in a battle that resulted in eleven Confederates killed and five Home Guard killed.

After several more skirmishes, during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers[citation needed], Morgan's raid almost ended on July 19, 1863, at Buffington Island, Ohio, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. (Intercepted by Union gunboats, less than 200 of his men succeeded in crossing.) Most of Morgan's men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas Prisoner of War camp in Chicago, which had a very high death rate. On July 26, near Salineville, Ohio (actually closer to New Lisbon-now called just Lisbon), Morgan and his exhausted, hungry and saddlesore soldiers were finally forced to surrender.

On November 27, Morgan and six of his officers, most notably Thomas Hines, escaped from their cells in the Ohio Penitentiary by digging a tunnel from Hines' cell into the inner yard and then ascending a wall with a rope made from bunk coverlets and a bent poker iron. Morgan and three of his officers, shortly after midnight, boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning. Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot, and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River. Through the assistance of sympathizers, they eventually made it to safety in the South. Coincidentally, the same day Morgan escaped, his wife gave birth to a daughter, who died shortly afterwards before Morgan returned home.

Though Morgan's Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press and caused the Union leadership considerable concern, it is now regarded as little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war. Furthermore, it was done in direct violation of his orders from Gen. Braxton Bragg not to cross the river. Despite the Raiders' best efforts, Union forces had amassed nearly 110,000 Union militia in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; dozens of United States Navy gunboats along the Ohio; and strong Federal cavalry forces, which doomed the raid from the beginning. The cost of the raid to the Federals was extensive, with claims for compensation still being filed against the U.S. government well into the early 20th century. However, the Confederacy's irreplaceable loss of some of the finest light cavalry[citation needed]in American history far outweighed the Union's replaceable losses in equipment and supplies. When taken in together with the defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the loss of Morgan's cavalry brigade dealt another serious blow to Confederate morale.

After his return from Ohio, Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg. On August 22, 1864, Morgan was placed in command of the Trans-Allegheny Department, embracing at the time the Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.

However the men he was assigned were in no way comparable to those he had lost. Morgan once again began raiding into Kentucky, but his men lacked discipline and he was either not willing or able to control them, leading to open pillaging as well as high casualties. By now Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditry, likely leading to his removal from command. He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville, Tennessee.

On September 4, 1864, he was surprised and killed while attempting to escape capture during a Union raid on Greeneville, Tennessee. His men always believed that he had been murdered to prevent a second escape from prison, but it seems he was simply shot because he refused to halt.

Morgan was buried in Lexington Cemetery. The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child, another daughter.

John Hunt Morgan, Brig. General (CSA)
Birth: June 1, 1825 Huntsville, AL, USA Death: September 4, 1864 (39) Greenville, Green Co., TN

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Son of Calvin Morgan and Henrietta Morgan Husband of Rebecca Bruce and Martha Ready

Father of Infant Morgan, Sidney Morgan, Johnny Morgan and Johnny Morgan Brother of Henrietta Duke, Charlton Hunt Morgan, Calvin Morgan, Richard Morgan, Thomas Morgan and 1 other, and Katherine Morgan « less Half brother of John Morgan, Gen., Henrietta Morgan, Calvin Morgan, Jr., Mary Morgan, Ann Morgan and 7 others, Catherine Morgan, Richard Morgan, Charlton Morgan, Thomas Morgan, Francis Morgan, Catherine Morgan and Eleanor Morgan « less

John Hunt Morgan was born Wednesday, June 1, 1825, at 310 South Green Street in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1831, his father, Calvin, lost his Alabama home because he couldn?t pay the taxes. He accepted his father-in-law?s offer to move to Lexington, Kentucky, and manage one of the Hunt farms in Fayette County. Their family moved into a two-story farmhouse on Tates Creek Road. John Morgan was six years old when they relocated to Kentucky.

At age seventeen, John enrolled at Transylvania College in Lexington in 1842 and joined the Adelphi Society, a literary fraternity. In June of 1844, he had a duel with a fraternity brother. Neither was seriously hurt. Following this incident on July 4, 1844, the college?s Board of Trustees expelled him from the school.

He was married twice. First to Rebecca Gratz Bruce of Lexington (1830-1861) was eighteen-years-old when she was married November 21, 1848 to John, twenty-three. In September 1853, she had a stillborn son. As an aftereffect of her p... read more

John Hunt Morgan was born Wednesday, June 1, 1825, at 310 South Green Street in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1831, his father, Calvin, lost his Alabama home because he couldn?t pay the taxes. He accepted his father-in-law?s offer to move to Lexington, Kentucky, and manage one of the Hunt farms in Fayette County. Their family moved into a two-story farmhouse on Tates Creek Road. John Morgan was six years old when they relocated to Kentucky.

At age seventeen, John enrolled at Transylvania College in Lexington in 1842 and joined the Adelphi Society, a literary fraternity. In June of 1844, he had a duel with a fraternity brother. Neither was seriously hurt. Following this incident on July 4, 1844, the college?s Board of Trustees expelled him from the school.

He was married twice. First to Rebecca Gratz Bruce of Lexington (1830-1861) was eighteen-years-old when she was married November 21, 1848 to John, twenty-three. In September 1853, she had a stillborn son. As an aftereffect of her pregnancy, Rebecca developed a blood clot in her leg.

After eight years of suffering, she died an invalid and childless at age thirty-one. John would be a widower for two years before he met and married his second wife, Martha "Mattie" Ready of Murfreesboro, Tennessee (1840-1887). She was twenty-two when she married John who was then thirty-seven. They had two daughters. The first was born November 27, 1863, and lived only one day. Their second, Johnnie, was born April 7, 1865, following John?s death.

His grandfather, John Wesley Hunt, was an early founder of Lexington and one of the wealthiest men west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is said that he was Lexington?s first millionaire. He had significant investments in merchandising, manufacturing, banking and government securities

John Morgan stood arrow-straight at six feet tall, weighed 185 pounds. He had curly sandy hair and gray eyes. Early in the Civil War, Carrie Pyncheon of Huntsville wrote in her diary, "Before the town was occupied by the Yankees, I spent an evening with Captain Jack [John] Morgan, our second Marion. He was so mild and gentle in his manners that I would not have taken him for a soldier but for his boots and spurs, so unwarrior-like did he seem."

As the war began, he was elected captain of the Morgan Squadron, which formed the nucleus of the 2nd KY cavalry. By the end of 1862, he rose through the ranks and was a brigadier general at the time of the Ohio-Indiana raid.

To the South, he was one of their greatest, their Robin Hood. Northern newspapers called him "The King of Horse Thieves, a bandit, a freebooter, no better than a thug." In the South, he was admired as the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy."

Family Data Collection - Births

Name: John Hunt Morgan

Father: Calvin C Morgan

Mother: Henrietta Hunt

Birth Date: 1 Jun 1825

City: Huntsville

County: Madison

State: AL

Country: USA

American Civil War General Officers

about John Hunt Morgan

State Served: Kentucky

Highest Rank: Brigadier General

Birth Date: 1825

Death Date: 1864

Birth Place: Huntsville, Alabama

Army: Confederacy

Promotions: Promoted to Full Colonel (2nd KY Cav)

Promoted to Full Brig-Gen

Biography: Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan

Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan was born at Huntsville,

Ala., June 1, 1825, but was reared in Kentucky from the age of

four years, upon the farm near Lexington to which his parents

removed. He was the eldest of six brothers, of whom all bore

arms for the Confederacy. It is said that he was a lineal

descendant of Daniel Morgan, of Revolutionary fame.

His first military experience was at the time of the war with

Mexico, when he had the rank of lieutenant in Capt. O. P.

Beard's company, General Marshall's cavalry, and in later

years he was captain of the Lexington Rifles. During the

period following the Mexican war he devoted himself with

success to manufacturing.

On April 16, 1861, he telegraphed President Davis: "Twenty

thousand men can be raised to defend southern liberty against

northern conquest. Do you want them?" But he was not

encouraged to immediate action.

In September he was arrested by Home Guards while conveying

jeans cloth southward from his factory, and imprisoned for

three days; and in the latter part of that month he joined the

Confederate forces at Bowling, mustered in November 5th.

He became a colonel in the summer of 1862, when he organized

the Second cavalry at Chattanooga. Then, in July, he won fame

by his first Kentucky raid. In August he covered the front of

Bragg's army concentrating at McMinnville, Tenn., with

victorious engagements at Gallatin and Hartsville.

During Bragg's occupation of Kentucky, part of his men

advanced to the Ohio river at Augusta. On October 18th, he

captured several hundred Federals at Lexington, after a severe

fight. On the return to Tennessee he was given command of a

cavalry brigade, composed of his own regiment and the Seventh,

Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Kentucky cavalry.

On December 7th, he won a brilliant victory at Hartsville. On

the 11th he was commissioned brigadier-general. Then followed

his "Christmas raid" in Kentucky, which, with his previous

exploits, elicited a resolution of thanks from Congress.

His cavalry division was now formed, the First brigade

including the Second, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Kentucky and

Ninth Tennessee regiments; the Second brigade, the Third,

Eighth, Eleventh and Tenth Kentucky. Taking position on the

right of Bragg's army in middle Tennessee, he fought the enemy

at Vaught's Hill, Milton, Liberty, and Snow's Hill, March 19th

to April 3rd, and on May 10th defeated the Federals in

southeast Kentucky, at the battle of Greasy Creek.

On June 27th, as Rosecrans advanced to force Bragg from

Tennessee, General Morgan started out from Sparta, to draw off

the Federal strength by an invasion of the Northwest. It

happened that his heaviest fighting was in Kentucky.

Colonel Chenault, Major Brent, and many other brave men fell

at Green River bridge, July 4th, and at Lebanon young Thomas

H. Morgan was killed.

After a circuit through Indiana and Ohio around Cincinnati, he

attempted to recross the Ohio river at Buffington island, July

19th. But after a spirited battle, Colonel Duke and part of

his command were captured, and Morgan, with the remainder,

forced to continue eastward.

On the 26th, Colonels Grigsby and Johnson, with 300 or 400

men, forded the river, and Morgan himself was halfway across

when he saw that most of his men must be captured, and

returned to share their fate.

He and his officers were treated rather as criminals than

military prisoners, and confined, with the usual indignities,

in the Ohio State prison. But before the end of the year he

had escaped with six companions, and passed through Kentucky

and Tennessee to the Confederate lines.

In January, 1864, he was given authority to reorganize his

command, and in the following month, at his own request, was

ordered from Decatur, GA, to Abingdon, Va. There he had the

duty of defending the salt works and lead mines, soon

threatened by formidable columns under Crook and Burbridge.

He checked Crook at Wytheville in May, and then made a raid in

Kentucky to compel the retreat of Burbridge. On June 8th he

took Mt. Sterling and 400 men, and on the 11th captured

General Hobson and 1,800 men at Cynthiana.

But Burbridge was in close pursuit, and Morgan was badly

defeated on the 12th. Overwhelmed by misfortune, he yet

demonstrated his great nature by renewed efforts to defend his

territory.

The enemy having penetrated Bull's Gap in August, he was

advancing on that post with about 1,000 men when attacked at

Greeneville, Tenn., at daylight, September 4th, by Gillem's

cavalry. While escaping from the house in which he had passed

the night, he was shot and killed. His body, shamefully

treated at the time, was afterward interred with honor in the

cemetery at Lexington.

Source: Confederate Military History, vol. XI, p. 245

_______

Early life and career

John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan. He was an uncle of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan and a grandson of John Wesley Hunt, an early founder of Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also the brother-in-law of A.P. Hill and of Basil W. Duke.[2]

Morgan's father lost his Huntsville home in 1831 when he was unable to pay the property taxes following the failure of his pharmacy. The family then moved to Lexington, where Calvin Morgan would manage one of Hunt's sprawling farms. Morgan also attended Transylvania College for two years, but was suspended in June 1844 for dueling with a fraternity brother. In 1846, Morgan joined the Freemasons, as had his father before him.

In 1846 Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Army as a cavalry private during the Mexican-American War, and saw combat at the Battle of Buena Vista. On his return to Kentucky, he became a hemp manufacturer and eventually took over his grandfather's prosperous mercantile business. In 1848, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce, 18-year-old sister of Morgan's business partner. Morgan raised a militia artillery company in 1852, but it was disbanded two years later.

In 1853, Morgan's wife delivered a stillborn son. Rebecca Morgan contracted septic thrombophlebitis, an infection of a blood clot in a vein, which eventually led to an amputation. Relations with his wife's family suffered over different views on slavery and with her health problems. In 1857, Morgan raised an independent infantry company known as the "Lexington Rifles," and spent much of his free time drilling them.

[edit] Civil War service

John Hunt Morgan Memorial in downtown Lexington, Kentucky

Like most Kentuckians, Morgan did not initially support secession. Immediately after Lincoln's election in November 1860, he wrote to his brother, Thomas Hunt Morgan, then a student at Kenyon College in northern Ohio, "Our State will not I hope secede[.] have no doubt but Lincoln will make a good President at least we ought to give him a fair trial & then if he commits some overt act all the South will be a unit." By the following spring, Tom Morgan (who also had opposed Kentucky's secession) had transferred home to the Kentucky Military Institute and there began to support the Confederacy. Just before the fourth of July, he quietly left for Camp Boone, just across the Tennessee border, by way a steamer from Louisville to enlist in the Kentucky State Guard. John stayed at home in Lexington to tend to his troubled business and his ailing wife. Becky Morgan finally died on July 21, 1861. In September, Captain Morgan and his militia company went to Tennessee and joined the Confederate States Army. Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment and became its colonel on April 4, 1861.[2]

Morgan and his cavalrymen fought at the Battle of Shiloh in May 1862, and he soon became a symbol to secessionists in their hopes for obtaining Kentucky for the Confederacy. A Louisiana writer, Robert D. Patrick, compared Morgan to Francis Marion and wrote that "a few thousands of such men as his would regain us Kentucky and Tennessee." In his first Kentucky raid, Morgan left Knoxville on July 4, 1862, with almost 900 men and in three weeks he swept through Kentucky, deep in the rear of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army. He reported the capture of 1,200 Federal soldiers, whom he paroled, acquired several hundred horses, and destroyed massive quantities of supplies. He unnerved Kentucky's Union military government and President Abraham Lincoln received so many frantic appeals for help that he complained that "they are having a stampede in Kentucky." Historian Kenneth M. Noe wrote that Morgan's feat "in many ways surpassed J.E.B. Stuart's celebrated 'Ride around McClellan' and the Army of the Potomac the previous spring." The success of Morgan's raid was one of the key reasons that the Confederate Heartland Offensive of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith was launched later that fall, assuming that tens of thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army if they invaded the state.[3]

Morgan was promoted to brigadier general (his highest rank) on December 11, 1862.[2] He received the thanks of the Confederate Congress on May 1, 1863 for his raids on the supply lines of Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans in December and January, most notably his victory at the Battle of Hartsville on December 7.[4] Also in December, Morgan married Martha "Mattie" Ready, the daughter of Tennessee United States Representative Charles Ready and a cousin of William T. Haskell, another former U.S. representative from Tennessee.

[edit] Morgan's Raid

Hoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of Vicksburg and the Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as "Morgan's Raid". Morgan crossed the Ohio River, and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio. After many skirmishes and battles, during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers[citation needed], Morgan's raid almost ended on July 19, 1863, at Buffington Island, Ohio, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. (Intercepted by Union gunboats, less than 200 of his men succeeded in crossing.) Most of Morgan's men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas Prisoner of War camp in Chicago, which had a very high death rate. On July 26, near Salineville, Ohio (actually closer to New Lisbon-now called just Lisbon), Morgan and his exhausted, hungry and saddlesore soldiers were finally forced to surrender.

On November 27, Morgan and six of his officers, most notably Thomas Hines, escaped from their cells in the Ohio Penitentiary by digging a tunnel from Hines' cell into the inner yard and then ascending a wall with a rope made from bunk coverlets and a bent poker iron. Morgan and three of his officers, shortly after midnight, boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning. Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot, and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River. Through the assistance of sympathizers, they eventually made it to safety in the South. Coincidentally, the same day Morgan escaped, his wife gave birth to a daughter, who died shortly afterwards before Morgan returned home.

General John Hunt Morgan

Though Morgan's Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press and caused the Union leadership considerable concern, it is now regarded as little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war. Furthermore, it was done in direct violation of his orders from Gen. Braxton Bragg not to cross the river. Despite the Raiders' best efforts, Union forces had amassed nearly 110,000 Union militia in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; dozens of United States Navy gunboats along the Ohio; and strong Federal cavalry forces, which doomed the raid from the beginning. The cost of the raid to the Federals was extensive, with claims for compensation still being filed against the U.S. government well into the early 20th century. However, the Confederacy's irreplaceable loss of some of the finest light cavalry[citation needed]in American history far outweighed the Union's replaceable losses in equipment and supplies. When taken in together with the defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the loss of Morgan's cavalry brigade dealt another serious blow to Confederate morale.

[edit] Late career and death

After his return from Ohio, Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg. On August 22, 1864, Morgan was placed in command of the Trans-Allegheny Department, embracing at the time the Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.[5]

However the men he was assigned were in no way comparable to those he had lost. Morgan once again began raiding into Kentucky, but his men lacked discipline and he was either not willing or able to control them, leading to open pillaging as well as high casualties. By now Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditry[citation needed], likely leading to his removal from command. He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville, Tennessee.[1]

On September 4, 1864, he was surprised and killed while attempting to escape capture during a Union raid on Greeneville, Tennessee. His men always believed that he had been murdered to prevent a second escape from prison, but it seems he was simply shot because he refused to halt.

Morgan was buried in Lexington Cemetery. The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child, another daughter.

source: wikipedia -------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunt_Morgan

John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American Civil War.

Morgan is best known for Morgan's Raid in 1863, when he led 2,460 troops racing past Union lines into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in July 1863. This would be the farthest north any uniformed Confederate troops penetrated during the war.

John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan. He was an uncle of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan and a grandson of John Wesley Hunt, an early founder of Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also the brother-in-law of A.P. Hill and of Basil W. Duke.

In 1846, Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Army as a cavalry private during the Mexican-American War, and saw combat at the Battle of Buena Vista. On his return to Kentucky, he became a hemp manufacturer and eventually took over his grandfather's prosperous mercantile business. In 1848, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce, 18-year-old sister of Morgan's business partner. Morgan raised a militia artillery company in 1852, but it was disbanded two years later.

Like most Kentuckians, Morgan did not initially support secession. Immediately after Lincoln's election in November 1860, he wrote to his brother, Thomas Hunt Morgan, then a student at Kenyon College in northern Ohio, "Our State will not I hope secede, I have no doubt but Lincoln will make a good President at least we ought to give him a fair trial & then if he commits some overt act all the South will be a unit." Neverthless, in September 1861, Captain Morgan and his militia company went to Tennessee and joined the Confederate States Army. Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment and became its colonel on April 4, 1862.

Morgan and his cavalrymen fought at the Battle of Shiloh in May 1862, and he soon became a symbol to secessionists in their hopes for obtaining Kentucky for the Confederacy. A Louisiana writer, Robert D. Patrick, compared Morgan to Francis Marion and wrote that "a few thousands of such men as his would regain us Kentucky and Tennessee." In his first Kentucky raid, Morgan left Knoxville on July 4, 1862, with almost 900 men and in three weeks he swept through Kentucky, deep in the rear of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army. He reported the capture of 1,200 Federal soldiers, whom he paroled, acquired several hundred horses, and destroyed massive quantities of supplies. He unnerved Kentucky's Union military government and President Abraham Lincoln received so many frantic appeals for help that he complained that "they are having a stampede in Kentucky." Historian Kenneth M. Noe wrote that Morgan's feat "in many ways surpassed J.E.B. Stuart's celebrated 'Ride around McClellan' and the Army of the Potomac the previous spring." The success of Morgan's raid was one of the key reasons that the Confederate Heartland Offensive of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith was launched later that fall, assuming that tens of thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army if they invaded the state.

Morgan was promoted to brigadier general (his highest rank) on December 11, 1862, though the Promotion Orders were not signed by President Davis until December 14, 1862. He received the thanks of the Confederate Congress on May 1, 1863 for his raids on the supply lines of Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans in December and January, most notably his victory at the Battle of Hartsville on December 7. Also on December 14, Morgan married Martha "Mattie" Ready, the daughter of Tennessee United States Representative Charles Ready and a cousin of William T. Haskell, another former U.S. representative from Tennessee.

Hoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as "Morgan's Raid". Morgan crossed the Ohio River, and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio. At Corydon, Indiana the raiders met 450 local Home Guard in a battle that resulted in eleven Confederates killed and five Home Guard killed.

After several more skirmishes, during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers[citation needed], Morgan's raid almost ended on July 19, 1863, at Buffington Island, Ohio, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. (Intercepted by Union gunboats, less than 200 of his men succeeded in crossing.) Most of Morgan's men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas Prisoner of War camp in Chicago, which had a very high death rate. On July 26, near Salineville, Ohio (actually closer to New Lisbon-now called just Lisbon), Morgan and his exhausted, hungry and saddlesore soldiers were finally forced to surrender.

On November 27, Morgan and six of his officers, most notably Thomas Hines, escaped from their cells in the Ohio Penitentiary by digging a tunnel from Hines' cell into the inner yard and then ascending a wall with a rope made from bunk coverlets and a bent poker iron. Morgan and three of his officers, shortly after midnight, boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning. Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot, and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River. Through the assistance of sympathizers, they eventually made it to safety in the South. Coincidentally, the same day Morgan escaped, his wife gave birth to a daughter, who died shortly afterwards before Morgan returned home.

Though Morgan's Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press and caused the Union leadership considerable concern, it is now regarded as little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war. Furthermore, it was done in direct violation of his orders from Gen. Braxton Bragg not to cross the river. Despite the Raiders' best efforts, Union forces had amassed nearly 110,000 Union militia in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; dozens of United States Navy gunboats along the Ohio; and strong Federal cavalry forces, which doomed the raid from the beginning. The cost of the raid to the Federals was extensive, with claims for compensation still being filed against the U.S. government well into the early 20th century. However, the Confederacy's irreplaceable loss of some of the finest light cavalry[citation needed]in American history far outweighed the Union's replaceable losses in equipment and supplies. When taken in together with the defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the loss of Morgan's cavalry brigade dealt another serious blow to Confederate morale.

After his return from Ohio, Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg. On August 22, 1864, Morgan was placed in command of the Trans-Allegheny Department, embracing at the time the Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.

However the men he was assigned were in no way comparable to those he had lost. Morgan once again began raiding into Kentucky, but his men lacked discipline and he was either not willing or able to control them, leading to open pillaging as well as high casualties. By now Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditry, likely leading to his removal from command. He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville, Tennessee.

On September 4, 1864, he was surprised and killed while attempting to escape capture during a Union raid on Greeneville, Tennessee. His men always believed that he had been murdered to prevent a second escape from prison, but it seems he was simply shot because he refused to halt.

Morgan was buried in Lexington Cemetery. The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child, another daughter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunt_Morgan

He had at least one slave son, Sidney Morgan, by a slave woman, and was the biological grandfather of African American inventor Garrett Morgan (1877-1963).[6]