There are doubtless some here to-night who were on Morgan’s remarkable
raid into Indiana and Ohio, nearly fifty-six years ago. The first
brigade crossed the Cumberland River at Burksville, Ky., July 2,
1863, when it was out of its banks, floating driftwood, and fully a
quarter of a mile wide. The crossing of our twenty-four hundred men
and horses was effected by unsaddling and driving the horses into the
swollen stream, twenty or thirty at a time, and letting them swim to
the opposite bank, where they were caught and hitched, while the men
went over in two flat-boats and a couple of indifferent canoes. I
shall never forget the perilous position I was in on that occasion.
There were twelve of us, who crossed over between sundown and dark,
with our twelve saddles in one canoe. The surging waters came lapping
up to within three inches of the edges of the canoe, and on the upper
side once in a while they splashed in. The two men at the oars were
inexperienced, and made frequent mistakes during the passage, but
finally landed us safely on this side. I breathed much freer when I
got out.
On this raid, after the disastrous attack of July 4, upon the stockade
at Green River bridge, where we lost so many brave officers and men,
we, the next day, drove Col. Charles Hanson’s infantry regiment,
the 20th Kentucky, into the brick depot at Lebanon, Ky. Our troops
surrounded the building, but were greatly exposed to the enemy’s fire,
and suffered under the heat of a broiling sun for four hours. Some of
our men concealed themselves by lying down in or behind the tents just
vacated by the Federal troops. When the order was given by Gen. Morgan
to charge the enemy, I witnessed an admirable exhibition of courage
on the part of Col. D. Howard Smith. He mounted his horse and led the
assault himself, calling on us to follow him, in plain view of the
enemy and under a terrific fire from the depot, not exceeding a hundred
yards from our advancing columns. On the other side of the building, in
the charge of the Second Kentucky, just before the surrender, Lieut.
Thomas Morgan, a younger brother of Gen. Morgan was killed—shot through
the heart. He was idolized by his regiment, and many of his comrades,
infuriated by his death, in the excitement of the moment, would have
shown no quarter to the Federal soldiers had it not been for the noble
and magnanimous conduct of Gen. Morgan himself. Although stricken with
grief over the lifeless body of his favorite brother, and with his
eyes filled with tears, I saw him rush to the front inside the depot,
and with drawn pistol in hand he stood between Col. Hanson’s men and
his own, and declared he would shoot down the first one of his own men
who molested a prisoner. And here I may venture the assertion that no
officer in either army, as far as my knowledge extends, was kinder to
prisoners or more considerate of their rights than Gen. Morgan.
When our command crossed the Ohio River at Brandenburg, in two
steamboats we had captured, I experienced some peculiar sensations
as I set foot on Indiana soil and realized that I was engaged in a
hostile invasion of my adopted State. I soon got over this feeling,
however, and regarded our march into the enemy’s country as one of the
exigencies of war and entirely justifiable. I was in the advance guard
under Capt. Thomas H. Hines (afterward one of the judges of the Court
of Appeals of Kentucky) through Indiana and Ohio, and was captured at
Buffington Island. I rode down eight horses on that raid, and although
this number was perhaps above the average to the man, there were
doubtless fifteen thousand horses ridden at different times by Morgan’s
Men on the Indiana and Ohio raid.
About seven hundred of our command under Col. Richard Morgan,
surrendered at Buffington Island, and we were started down the river on
a boat next day in charge of some Ohio troops (the 12th Ohio Infantry,
as I recall), who treated us with great courtesy. Gen. Morgan and the
remainder of his troops (except four hundred of them under Col. Adam
R. Johnson who crossed the Ohio river at Buffington Island and thus
escaped) were not captured until a week later.