In 1857, the company of volunteer militia called the "Lexington Rifles"
was organized with John H. Morgan as Captain, it subsequently, upon the
organization of the State-guard, became incorporated in that body. It
was composed of the finest and most spirited young men of Lexington, and
soon won a high reputation for proficiency in drill, and in all the
duties taught in the camps of the State-guards, as well as for the
intelligence and daring of its members.
From the hour of its organization the men of this company seemed to
entertain the profoundest love and admiration for their Captain, and the
influence and control they accorded him was not too strongly expressed
in the words of their motto, which, written in large letters, framed and
hung up in their armory, caught the eye of every visitor and announced,
"Our laws the commands of our Captain."
It was with the forty-five or fifty men of this company who unhesitating
followed his fortunes when he went to the Southern army, and a few other
kindred spirits who immediately attached themselves to him, before he
had won rank or fame, that Morgan began his career, and around them as a
nucleus he gathered his gallant command. Although thoroughly Southern in
sentiment, and frank to the last degree in its expression, the members
of the company, with one or two exceptions, made no effort to go South
until Captain Morgan signified his readiness to lead them, in this, as
in all else, they awaited his decision and directions. The extreme
illness of his wife, who died in July, 1861, required, during the early
summer, his constant presence in Lexington, and he did not determine to
act until after the troops, posted at Camp Dick Robinson and the Home
guard organizations, began to give unmistakable evidences of hostility
to all persons not "loyal."
When the order was issued for the disarming of the State-guard, Morgan
determined to save his guns at all hazards. The State-guard was by this
time virtually disbanded, many of its officers of high rank, elected
under the impression that they were Southern men, had declared for the
other side, and various other influences tended to cripple and
demoralize it. An officer then, of that body, who decided to resist the
edict, disarming his men and leaving them defenseless, in the reach of
armed and bitter political opponents, could look for little backing from
his comrades. His best chance was to make his way at once to the
Confederate lines in Southern Kentucky. This Morgan resolved to do.
On Friday night, September 20, 1861, he confided to a few of his most
reliable and trusted men his determination and plans, and taking the
guns from the armory, loaded them into two wagons and started them out
of Lexington on the Versailles road under a small guard. The men
composing this guard left on such short notice that few of them had time
to prepare and carry with them even necessary clothing, scarcely time to
take leave of their families. They marched out of town with their
cartridge-boxes belted on, their rifles on their shoulders, loaded, and
their bayonets fixed. A regiment of Federal troops was encamped that
night at the fair ground, about a mile from town, and many of the
officers and men were in town at the time the guns were removed. In
order to deceive as to his movements and lull any suspicion that might
exist of his design to move the guns, Captain Morgan caused twelve or
fifteen men to parade and tramp heavily about the armory for an hour or
two after the wagons had been loaded and started, and so created the
impression that his company was engaged in drilling.
The wagons were not stopped in the town, and only one soldier was
encountered who was made prisoner by the escort, carried off some twenty
miles, and then released.
Morgan accompanied the wagons for a short distance until it was apparent
that there was no immediate danger to be apprehended, and returned to
Lexington.
On the next day when it was ascertained that the guns had been taken
away, and no trace of them could be discovered, a great excitement was
gotten up. That very day had been appointed for their seizure by the
authorities, and the authorities had been completely tricked and
baffled.
The loyal citizens who had calculated upon witnessing the discomfiture
of the "Rifles," and of all their backers, were disappointed, and had
the farther mortification of learning that the wagons containing the
coveted prizes had passed the night before, in the sight of them all, to
a place where they dared not follow. Of course many taunts were flung at
the fooled spies, and disappointed patriots; and at length the angry
discussions brought on a shooting affray between some of the "Rifles,"
and a part of the troops and Home-guards. The regiment stationed at the
fair grounds, was brought into town to quell this affair, and two pieces
of artillery were planted to sweep the principal streets--and from that
date, for four years, Lexington was under military rule.
Captain Morgan, for whose arrest an order was immediately issued,
communicated during the day with such of his men as desired to follow
him, and at nightfall left Lexington with them and rejoined those who
had gone before. He passed through Anderson county to Nelson, and halted
a few miles from Bardstown. Here he was joined by Captain John Cripps
Wickliffe, subsequently Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth Kentucky
Infantry, and a very gallant officer. Captain Wickliffe had determined
also to save his guns and take his company, or all that would follow
him, to the Confederate army. The greater portion of his company, one of
the finest in the State-guards, elected to go with him. Desirous, while
about it, of doing a brisk business in guns, he confiscated those of a
neighboring Home-guard company, and brought them to Morgan's camp--they
were immediately placed in the hands of the unarmed men, who, finding
an organized force making for the Confederate lines, attached themselves
to it. Many such men, anxious to go South, but afraid to go without a
leader, came to this camp during the four or five days that it was
maintained.
On account of the kindness and liberality of the people who lived in
that neighborhood, and who supplied its inmates with provisions of all
kinds, this camp was entitled "Camp Charity," and long will it be
remembered.
By the common wish and consent, Morgan took command of all the forces,
and when, on Saturday evening, September 28th, he resumed his march, he
was at the head of some two hundred men. He encountered no enemy. The
Home-guards, who mustered strong in the region through which he passed,
thought his force too formidable to attack and kept out of his path.
When he would hear of two bodies of them, likely to give him trouble if
united, he would pass between them and scare both.
After two days and nights hard marching, he reached Green river on
Monday evening, September 30th. He received an enthusiastic welcome from
the Confederate troops stationed there, most of whom were Kentuckians,
and many of them knew him well.
Colonel Roger W. Hanson, the officer in command, was himself from
Lexington, and was a warm personal friend of Morgan.
There were, at Green river, encamped on the Southern side of the stream,
at this date, the Second Kentucky Infantry (Hanson's own regiment), six
or seven hundred strong, Byrne's Battery, and four companies of
Tennessee cavalry.
Colonel Thomas Hunt, an uncle of Captain Morgan, was also there with two
companies of the regiment he was then organizing. Of all the general
officers (he was made a General) which Kentucky gave to the Confederate
service, least justice had been done by fame to Roger Hanson, and it is
strange that such should be the case. Not only was he well known,
constantly talked of, greatly loved, and ardently admired by the
Kentuckians, but his name was familiar in all parts of the army. It is
true that his early death blighted the reputation he was rapidly
winning, but it is hard for those who knew him to understand how such a
man could have failed to attract more general and more lively interest.
While a very young man, he served with distinction in Mexico, returning
home he indulged for a short period in an _erratic_ career which
astonished even the Kentuckians, and suddenly quitted it to beat all
rivals at the bar, and become a leading politician. Friends and
opponents agreed in pronouncing him one of the most effective speakers
in the State. His youth was too much occupied in more agreeable
pursuits, to admit of his employing profitably the educational
advantages which were offered him, but his mind, although unused to the
discipline of study, mastered all that it grappled with. He read less
and comprehended more law than any member of the profession in Kentucky.
His vigorous native intellect and acute sense, were perhaps more
formidable, for this reason. Want of science made his method of attack
more original and irresistible. In the contests of the bar and the
hustings, he was a sort of heavy armed partisan, his irregular, rapid
onslaught crushed opposition. The learning and eloquence of his ablest
antagonists availed little against his manly logic, and often sounded
like the merest folly after having been subjected to his telling
ridicule. All of his ideas seemed clearly defined; his mind was never in
a mist. His insight into character was extraordinary, and he had the
most remarkable faculty of accurate observation and life-like
reproduction, especially of ludicrous traits and scenes. His command of
humorous, graphic, forcible expression was unequaled. He had very many
noble traits of character. He was candid and truthful to bluntness. His
scorn of dissimulation and affectation of any sort, gave his manner and
speech a bluffness, and apparent want of sympathy with the feelings of
other men, which caused him often to be misunderstood. I believe that
he would rather that the whole world should have thought him a
scoundrel, than have seemed for one moment, in his own eyes, a
hypocrite. His will was dauntless, his resolution inflexible, his
courage high. He had little opportunity, during his military life, to
show the stuff that was in him, and to prove that he possessed other
qualities befitting an officer beside courage and the strictest
attention to the instruction, the comfort, and the discipline of his
men. Notwithstanding that he was a very strict disciplinarian--and
Kentucky troops have little love of discipline--he was very popular with
his men. They retaliated by nick-naming him "Bench-leg," or "Old
flint-lock," and admired him all the more intensely, the more frequently
that he showed them that they could never deceive him nor attempt it
with impunity. Once, thinking that the health of his regiment was
getting too bad, and that many cases of illness, reported as severe,
were but ruses to escape doing duty, he published an order that from
that date "there should be but two sick men at the same time in each
company," and caused it to be rigidly enforced. No one who ever saw
Hanson can forget him. In stature he was a little under the medium
hight, and he was powerfully but ungracefully built. His bulky and
ungainly form indicated great but awkward strength. His shoulders were
huge, round, and stooping, and he sat on his horse in the attitude in
which a sick man bends over the fire. His head was large and perfectly
round. His complexion was fair and florid, and his eyes gray and full of
light. His strong and marked features, when he became excited, worked
strangely and apparently without being moved by the same influences, and
the alert movement of his head, at such moments, was in singular
contrast to his otherwise heavy inactive manner. His face, when he was
calm and giving careful attention to any thing said to him, wore a look
of exceeding sternness, enhanced by a peculiar twitch of the muscles of
the mouth and eye. He had a German face with all the Irish expressions.
A wound received in a duel had shortened one leg and gave him a singular
gait, something between a jerk and a roll. His voice was deep and
guttural, and his utterance rapid, decided, abrupt, like that of a man
who meant all that he said, and knew that it would produce an effect. No
one could look him in the eye and fail to perceive that he was every
inch a man--a strong, brave, manly nature looked out in every lineament
of his face. Captain Wickliffe attached his company to the regiment
which Colonel Hunt was organizing. Of the stragglers who had come out
with Captain Morgan, some went one way and some another--only eight or
ten remained with him. Although not yet in the Confederate service, he
at once commenced the active and daring work which laid the foundation
of his celebrity and brought him at once into general notice. The
cavalry which had been stationed there previously to his coming, had
confined themselves to doing picket duty, and had never sought or been
required to do other service. This monotonous work, altogether devoid of
excitement, did not accord with his nature, which demanded the stimulus
of adventure; he, moreover, intuitively understood then, and declared
the fact since so completely demonstrated, that cavalry can be employed
to far better advantage, if kept well out upon the front or flanks of
the army to which it belongs, and close upon the enemy, than by exacting
of it the sort of duty which can just as well be performed by infantry.
The Federal advanced forces were then stationed at Elizabethtown, and
were soon pushed to Nolin Creek, distant about twenty-one or two miles
from Munfordsville. Captain Morgan had at first not more than twenty
mounted men of his own company, but with these and with volunteers from
the other cavalry who were inspired by his example, he made frequent
"scouts," and watched and reported every thing that transpired upon the
front. These "excursions" were undertaken about four or five times in
every week, and would usually occupy twenty-four hours. The scouting
party would set out at or a little before dark; before reaching the
lines of the enemy, some exciting chases would be had after the
countrymen who were in Federal pay or sympathy, and who, always on the
lookout for us, would start at break-neck speed for the camp of their
friends, pursued by our foremost riders. At first they tried to do this
courier duty on horseback, but finding that we were better mounted than
they were, and that, when hard pressed and forced to take to the brush,
their horses were abandoned for ever, they betook themselves to a less
expensive mode of conveying information. They were fleet of foot and
knew the paths through the thickets and hills perfectly, and it was
difficult to follow and impossible to catch them. We, also, had many
friends among the country people living near the enemy's camp, and as we
would prowl all night around and among the Federal pickets and outposts,
seeking to entrap the unwary, many were the secret conferences which we
held in the shade of the woods with faithful informants, who generally
closed their reports with emphatic adjurations that, "For the love of
God," we would never breathe their names.
Once or twice Captain Morgan passed himself as a Federal officer, in
close vicinity to their camps, but this ruse could not be repeated often
with success. Once we were guided safely out of a very dangerous
situation by an intensely "loyal" man who thought he was assisting some
friends who had lost their way. When day returned the scouting party
would take a position on the "line of retreat" at a convenient but safe
distance from the enemy, rest and refresh men and horses, observe
closely if there was any unusual movement in the hostile lines, and as
the day declined and it became evident that all was likely to remain
quiet, it would return to camp. After the first two or three weeks of
this sort of service, and its advantages had become apparent, an order
was given to turn over to Captain Morgan some thirty "condemned"
artillery horses. With a little care and nursing they were rendered
tolerably fit for his purposes, and he was thus enabled to mount, the
better part of his company. I knew a scout to be performed, with most of
the men riding these same rejected horses, of sixty-eight miles in
twenty hours. Although these scouts and expeditions were not nearly so
exciting as were subsequent ones, when the cavalry of both armies had
become more accustomed to them and more enterprising, yet they were very
pleasant episodes in the dull tedious life of the camp, and excellent
preparation for really hard and hazardous service. Morgan himself
derived great benefit from the experience they gave him, for he rarely
if ever missed them. He always knew how to direct and how to estimate
the scouting duty of his command, one of the most important, by the
practical knowledge thus acquired. Nor will it injure any man who is
called upon to exercise the duties of a General to take a few lessons in
this school. The fatigue and discomfort from want of sleep attending
these expeditions to those who went constantly upon them, was almost as
great, as that suffered in later and far more difficult service.
The first skirmish in which Morgan's company or any portion of it was
engaged, was a very insignificant and bloodless one, and served only to
illustrate the character of the apprehensions which are apt to assail
raw troops.
It was upon the second or third scout that Captain Morgan had taken,
that we for the first time met the enemy. Contrary to the usual
practice, the scouting party had started out early in the day; it
consisted of some fifteen of Morgan's own company, twenty-five of the
Tennessee cavalry, and ten or fifteen volunteers, about fifty in all.
After proceeding some twelve miles in the direction of Nolin Creek, the
advance of our party suddenly discovered a body of Federal infantry
moving down the road toward us. Their bayonets glistening and just
perceptible above a little rise three or four hundred yards off notified
the videttes of their vicinity. They did not see us, and we immediately
dismounted and posted ourselves in the thickets on both sides of the
road, sending the horses to the rear under charge of eight or ten men.
No plan of battle was adopted, although many were proposed--the various
suggestions, however, that were thrown out, in the inspiration of the
moment are lost to history. I remember, however, that one man gave it
as his decided opinion, that we ought to charge them immediately on
horseback, and he then rode rapidly back to Green river to report the
situation to Colonel Hanson. Enjoining silence on the talkative, Captain
Morgan went forward on foot to a house, about one hundred and forty or
fifty yards in front of our position, and looked out from a window,
which commanded a full view of their approach, upon the enemy. He saw a
body of sixty or seventy, but this came so close upon him that he was
compelled to leave the house before he could discover whether it was the
advance of another and larger body, or was unsupported. Fortunately he
effected his retreat from the house and rejoined his party without
discovery by the enemy. The latter continued to march on, past the
house, and toward our position, until, within forty or fifty yards of
us, something discovered us to them and they halted. Captain Morgan
immediately stepped out into the road, fired at and shot the officer
riding at the head of the column. Without returning the fire his men
fell back to the house before mentioned, situated on a long low knoll,
through which, to the left of the house as we faced, was a cut of the
railroad. This afforded a pretty good position and one which we should
have taken ourselves. Here they deployed and opened a volley upon us,
which would have been very fatal if we had been in the tops of instead
of behind the trees. Both sides then continued to load and fire rapidly.
With us, every man ought to have behaved well, for each acted upon his
own responsibility. Captain Morgan with a few of the more enterprising,
and one or two personal followers who always kept close to him, worked
his way very nigh to the enemy, and did the only shooting that was
effective. We had neither drill nor any understanding among ourselves.
The fight was much like a camp-meeting, or an election row. After it had
lasted about ten or twelve minutes, an intelligent horse-holder came up
from the rear, breathless, and announced that the enemy was flanking us,
and that he had been largely reinforced. The receipt of this important
intelligence necessitated the withdrawal of the forces, and every man
withdrew after his own fashion and in his own time. Our loss, was one
man slightly wounded and several shot through the clothes. It was as
bloody as an affair between Austrian and Italian outposts.
The horse-bolder who brought the information which led to our retreat,
was evidently one who had carefully studied the military articles in the
newspapers, and spoke from the influence of a sudden recollection of the
"science" he had thus acquired, rather than from accurate observation.
This may be safely asserted, as we were not pursued by the enemy, and
next day, upon returning, learned that they had commenced retreating
about the same time that we did, and that they were but a scouting party
like ourselves. Two or three men who got first to Green river, before
Captain Morgan's report was received there, stated that we had
encountered a strong Federal column advancing to drive our forces away
from Woodsonville; that we had attacked, and after a hard fight checked
it, but that unless Captain Morgan was immediately reinforced it would
probably resume its march. This statement created much excitement at
Woodsonville, and was generally credited. But Colonel Hanson treated the
gentlemen who brought it rather roughly, and said (with an unnecessary
reflection on a gallant arm of the service) that it was a "Cavalry
Story."
Several days after this affair, Morgan made his first narrow escape of
capture. Hanson determined to send a force to the Nolin outposts
sufficiently strong to drive them in and create serious confusion and
alarm in the Federal camps. He accordingly ordered the Major commanding
the battalion of Tennessee cavalry, to take his entire force, about two
hundred and forty men, and, conducted by Morgan, who went with twenty of
his men, to make the attack upon the outposts. This force started about
nightfall. Morgan thinking that there were now men enough upon the road
to accomplish some of his most favorite plans, was in high spirits. His
own men, who had never in their lives seen so much cavalry on the
march, believed the column invincible.
The Tennesseeans who had long murmured at the inaction to which they had
been condemned, were anxious for a fight. The Major arranged the plan
with Captain Morgan--the latter was to get, with his twenty men, in the
rear of the pickets on post, and then fire a gun. At this signal, the
Major was to dash down with his battalion, and, picking up the pickets,
charge down upon the base and reserve. In the meantime, Morgan expected
to entertain the latter with an unlooked-for volley. It was proposed to
push the plan as far as possible, even, if the first features were
successfully and quickly executed, to an attack upon the camps.
But it happened that some five miles from Nolin, one of the country
fellows, who was in the habit of running into the Federal lines at our
approach, was surprised and arrested by Captain Morgan who was in the
advance.
The women of whom there were several in the house where he was taken,
made a terribly outcry and noise, and would not be pacified.
Captain Morgan moved on, but was shortly afterward informed by one of
the men, that the Tennessee battalion had turned back. He rode to the
Major and urged, but unsuccessfully, that the plan should not be
abandoned. Determined, then, to go forward himself, he proceeded to the
point where the pickets on the extreme front had usually stood, but they
were gone. He halted his detachment here, and taking with him one of his
best and most trusted men (private, afterward Captain John Sisson),
started down the road on foot to reconnoiter. He had been gone but a
short time, when the rear guard of the Tennessee battalion, about twenty
strong, came up; it was commanded by Captain, afterward Colonel, Biffel.
It seemed that the Major had conceived that the shrieks of the women
would notify the enemy of his coming, and prevent his plan of surprising
the picket posts and base from succeeding.
Finding that Morgan had still gone on, Biffel took advantage of his
position in the rear of the returning battalion and came to support him.
As soon as he got up and learned why we were halted, he turned into the
thicket with his detachment, on the side of the road, opposite to that
occupied by Morgan's. Just as he was doing this, a Federal column of
cavalry came up the road, and hearing the noise of horses forcing they
way through the brush, halted about one hundred yards from the point
where we lay. The night was clear, and we could easily distinguish them
in the moonlight. I had been left in command of the detachment, and
would not permit the men to fire, lest it should endanger Captain
Morgan's safety, who, if we were driven off, would probably be captured.
I ordered, therefore, that not a shot should be fired, unless they
resumed their march and came right upon us.
They remained at the spot where they had halted for perhaps twenty
minutes, apparently in consultation, when they countermarched and went
off rapidly. In a few minutes after they had disappeared, Captain Morgan
and Sisson returned and gave an account of what had happened to them.
They had walked along the road for fifteen or twenty minutes, when
suddenly they heard the tramp of cavalry. They were in a stretch of the
road darkened for some distance by the shade of heavy timber. This
column came upon them, and they slipped aside some ten or fifteen paces
into the woods. Captain Morgan estimated it at about one hundred and
twenty men. After it had passed, it occurred to him that his men would
be attacked by it, and he started back rapidly to rejoin them. The
fatigue of running through the woods was soon too much for him and he
was compelled to desist.
As he drew near to the point where he had left us and heard no firing,
he conceived a true idea of the situation. Stealing cautiously along, he
came upon the enemy, who, at the halt, had gone into the woods also. He
was then compelled to lie closely concealed and perfectly still until
the road was left clear by the retreat of the enemy. Fortunately his
proximity was not discovered by the enemy when in this last situation.
Captain Morgan continued actively engaged in this sort of service until
the troops were withdrawn from Woodsonville, when he was also ordered to
Bowlinggreen. There the men were sworn into the service, the company
regularly organized and officers elected. John H. Morgan was of course
elected Captain; I was elected First Lieutenant; James West, Second
Lieutenant; Van Buren Sellers, Third, or, more properly, Brevet Second
Lieutenant. The strength of the company was then a little above the
"minimum" required for organization, numbering sixty-seven privates.
Immediately after reaching Bowlinggreen, excellent horses were purchased
and turned over to the company, by General Buckner's order, and saddles,
bridles, tents, etc., were issued to it. It was already provided with
the best guns and accouterments, and when the fitting up at Bowlinggreen
was completed, no command in the Confederate service was better
equipped, in any respect.
At this period two other companies, one commanded by Captain Thomas
Allen of Shelbyville, Kentucky, and the other by Captain James Bowles of
Louisville, but principally recruited in the neighborhood of Glasgow,
were assigned to Captain Morgan's command at the earnest request of
their officers and men. Bowles' company was not full, and was
consolidated with another fragment of a company commanded by Lieutenant
Churchill--the latter becoming First Lieutenant of the new organization.
The three companies composed "Morgan's Squadron," a popular misnomer by
which, however, the command came, in a short time, to be regularly
designated. Morgan's company became A, of this organization; Allen's, B;
Bowles', C. The squadron remained quietly in camp, at Bowlinggreen, for
two or three weeks after its organization. This time was profitably
spent in instructing the men in drill and teaching them something of
discipline. The first expedition taken after this, was to Grayson
county, on the north side of Green river, to collect and bring to
Bowlinggreen a large drove of cattle which had been purchased, but could
not be brought out without a guard.
The "Home-guards" held this county in strong force; they had long
expected a Confederate inroad, and had sternly determined to punish the
invaders when they came. The squadron reached the ferry, at which it was
directed to cross at night. We found the boats sunken, but raised them,
filled up the holes bored in their bottoms, bailed them out, and by
eight o'clock next morning we had one company across. The day was spent
in crossing the cattle to the southern side of the river.
On the following evening, the entire squadron was transferred to the
north side of the river and passed the night agreeably in chasing the
Home-guards, who did not make a hard fight, but ran off some twenty or
thirty miles to a neighboring county to "rally."
Shortly after his return to Bowlinggreen, from this expedition, Captain
Morgan was ordered to the front again, and reported to Brigadier General
Hindman, who commanded a brigade of infantry and a strong force of
cavalry, in all three thousand or thirty-five hundred men, upon the
extreme front of our line.
General Hindman's headquarters were at Bell's tavern, twenty-five miles
from Bowlinggreen, and thirteen from Woodsonville, then occupied by the
enemy, who had advanced to Green river, ten or fifteen days after we
left there.
It would, perhaps, be more correct to say, that the enemy held
Munfordsville, for although Woodsonville was virtually in his
possession, and completely at his disposal, there were, at that date,
none of his regiments encamped on the southern side of the river.
A few days before Morgan's arrival, had occurred the fight, in which
Colonel Terry, of the Eighth Texas Cavalry (better known then as Terry's
Rangers), was killed, and of which so many contradictory versions have
prevailed. The Northern account has often been published, and if the
many later and more important events have not crowded it out of memory,
is familiar to all who read the Northern newspapers at that time.
Without presuming to give a minute account of the fight, for I did not
witness it, nor have I ever seen a report of it, I can present, in a few
words, the idea which I derived from the description of men who were
present, and which was generally received, just after the fight, in our
army.
General Hindman had received information that a strong body of the enemy
had crossed the river, and desiring to ascertain if this movement was
preliminary to an advance of the entire army, he moved forward with the
greater part of his infantry, some artillery and Terry's regiment of
cavalry, to reconnoiter, and, perhaps, contest an advance, if it were
made. When he arrived at the ground upon which the fight commenced,
about three miles from the river, he discovered the enemy, and,
supposing his force to be not stronger than his own, determined to
engage him.
I am not familiar with the plan or details of the fight, but am under
the impression that, when first seen, the enemy was slowly advancing,
unaware of Hindman's vicinity, and that the latter screened the bulk of
his force behind a large hill, upon the eastern side of the Bowlinggreen
road, the summit of which he occupied with skirmishers, and posted his
artillery some distance farther back, where it was partially concealed,
and could yet sweep the road and the ground over which the enemy was
advancing.
Terry was instructed to skirmish in the enemy's front, and draw him on,
until his flank should be exposed to the infantry, that was masked
behind the hill. It was the intention then, I have always understood, to
attack vigorously with all the infantry, throw a part of it in the
enemy's rear, and between him and the river, while Terry charged him on
the other flank. One part of Terry's regiment, under his own immediate
command, was on the right of the road at a considerable distance from
any support. Another, commanded by one of his Captains, was posted
nearer the infantry.
Hindman's plan to bring his whole force into action and cut off and
capture a part of the enemy's, if such was his plan, was frustrated by
the impatient ardor of Terry, who, after a very brief retreat before
Willich's regiment of infantry, turned and charged it furiously. The
regiment was deployed in skirmish order, and had barely time to "rally
by fours," when Terry, of whose command they had, up to that moment,
seen only a very few, came down on them. The Texians rode around the
groups of four, shooting the men down with their revolvers and
shot-guns. Seeing his Colonel engaged, the officer commanding the other
portion of the regiment, charged the enemy nighest him with similar
success. Terry and six of his men were killed, and perhaps twice that
number wounded. All the witnesses on the Confederate side concurred in
saying that fifteen or twenty of the Federals were killed, and as many
more, at least, wounded. I passed over the ground shortly afterward as
bearer of a flag of truce, and heard the same account from the citizens
living near the scene of the fight. Willich's regiment was a very fine
one, and its commander a very superior officer.
General Hindman was an officer of great dash and energy, and very
ambitious--he was, therefore, just the man to encourage an enterprising
subordinate, and give him free rein in that sort of service which keeps
up the _morale_ of an army at a time when it must remain inactive,
reflects credit upon the commanding officer who directs it, and which
rank and duty forbid a commanding officer to undertake himself. Although
his imperious and exacting temper made him many enemies, he had other
qualities which gained him devoted friends. One was a disposition
(proceeding either from a desire to attach to himself men whose
friendship he thought would be valuable, or from a real feeling of
regard--perhaps from both) to go all lengths for a friend. He entered
heartily into all of Morgan's plans, encouraged and gave him every
facility to extend his enterprises, and seemed to entertain a peculiar
pride and pleasure in his success. There is no doubt that there was
something in his nature which made him cordially sympathize with every
thing that was daring and adventurous. Morgan became very fond of him,
and always spoke with pleasure of this brief service with him. Although
almost constantly close upon the outposts of the enemy, sometimes in
small detachments, and occasionally with every effective man, the
squadron had no engagement except the picket fights, which were of
constant occurrence. The reason of this was that the Federals never came
outside of their lines, except for very short distances, and then in
bodies so strong that we dared not attack them. The practice of firing
upon and attacking pickets was then much condemned by the Federal
officers, but no valid reason has ever been assigned for this
condemnation. It is true that killing and annoying pickets does not
decide the result of campaigns, neither do the minor skirmishes and
partial battles which so frequently occur in all wars, yet it is the
means of affecting the general result, and assisting to make it
successful as much as any other method of harassing an enemy. If war is
to be confined to sieges, pitched battles, etc., then every method of
wearying, annoying and discouraging an adversary, of keeping him in
doubt, or goading him to desperation, must be equally condemned. All
stratagem must be discarded, and a return may as well be had to the
polite but highly ridiculous practice of lines of battle saluting each
other and refusing to fire first. There are certain rules of war whose
observance humanity and the spirit of the age demand. Prisoners ought
not to be killed or maltreated, unless in retaliation; the terms of
capitulations and surrenders ought to be honorably fulfilled and
observed; war ought not to be made on non-combatants. But the soldier
ought to be content to take his chance. It is more soldierly to teach
pickets to fight when attacked, than to complain of it, and a picket who
will allow himself to be surprised on his post ought to be shot. At the
time of which I write the Federal army at Green river was provided with
no cavalry, or cavalry that was useless. Its commander, therefore,
unless informed by his spies, whose reports were, of course, infrequent,
was ignorant of all that transpired even immediately outside of his
advance videttes, and it was impossible for him to know whether an
attack on his picket line was made by a scouting party, or premised a
serious affair. He was, then, obliged either to prepare for battle every
time any thing of the kind occurred, greatly harassing his troops, or to
take the risk of an attack when unprepared. It was an excellent means,
too, of judging of the strength of an infantry camp and the changes made
from time to time in it, to attack the picket line at various points,
hear the "long rolls" beaten, and see the troops turn out, as
occasionally could be done.
One or two adventures of Captain Morgan at this period attracted a good
deal of notice. One of them, the burning of Bacon creek bridge, took
place before he reported to Hindman. This bridge had been destroyed at
the time our forces fell back from Woodsonville. It was a small
structure and easily replaced, but its reparation was necessary to the
use of the road. The Federal army then lay encamped between Bacon and
Nolin creeks, the advance about three miles from Bacon creek--the
outposts were scarcely half a mile from the bridge. A few days labor
served to erect the wood work of the bridge, and it was ready to receive
the iron rails, when Morgan asked leave to destroy it. It was granted,
and he started from Bowlinggreen on the same night with his entire
command, for he believed that he would find the bridge strongly guarded
and would have to fight for it. Halting at daybreak a short distance
from the river, he waited until night fell again before resuming his
march. He crossed the ford at Woodsonville, which was fortunately not
guarded, and dispersed a party of Home-guards, which, ignorant of his
vicinity, had assembled at Munfordsville to carry off some Southern
sympathizers of that place.
Pressing on vigorously he reached the bridge at midnight, and to his
surprise and satisfaction found it without a guard; that which protected
the workmen during the day, having been withdrawn at night. The bridge
was set on fire and in three hours thoroughly destroyed--no interruption
to the work was attempted by the enemy. The damage inflicted was
trifling, and the delay occasioned of little consequence. The benefit
derived from it by Morgan was two-fold--it increased the hardihood of
his men in that species of service, and gave himself still greater
confidence in his own tactics. Shortly after Woodsonville had been
included within the picket lines of the enemy and occupied with troops,
Captain Morgan with two men went at night to Hewlett's station, on the
railroad, about two hundred yards from the picket line, and found the
small building which was used as a depot in the possession of five or
six stragglers, who were playing cards and making merry, and captured
them. He set fire to the building, and when the troops had been called
out by the bright light, he sent in a message by one of his prisoners to
the effect that in the following week he would come and burn them out of
Woodsonville.
On the evening of the 20th or 21st of January, Captain Morgan with five
men left his camp at Bell's tavern, crossed the Green river at an
unguarded ferry, and on the following day rode into Lebanon, some sixty
miles from his point of departure. Several hundred troops were encamped
near this place, and a great many stores were in the town and in a large
building between the town and the nearest camp. The soldiers off or on
duty were frequently passing to and fro through the town. Morgan
destroyed the stores, and made all the stragglers prisoners; some of
them he was obliged to release after taking their overcoats, with which
he disguised his own men and was thus enabled to get quietly through
some dangerous situations. He brought back with him nine prisoners, a
large flag and several other trophies. Two companies of cavalry followed
him closely, but he gained the river first, crossed and turned the boat
adrift, just as his pursuers reached the bank. Next day he marched into
Glasgow with his five men and nine prisoners in column, and the United
States flag flying at the front. He scared the citizens of the place and
two or three straggling Confederates, who were there, horribly. The flag
and blue overcoats demoralised them.
When he reached his own camp the prisoners were quartered with different
"messes," but were not placed under regular guard. The inmates of each
tent, in which prisoners were placed, were held responsible for them. On
this occasion it happened that some of the men (by means in which they
were learned and adroit) had obtained several bottles of wine--sparkling
catawba--and the prisoners were assured that this sort of wine was
regularly issued to the Confederate cavalry by their commissaries. They
approved the wine and the practice of including it in soldiers' rations,
and five of them next morning begged, with tears in their eyes, to be
received into the Confederate service. These adventures are not related
because it is thought that they will excite any especial interest, but
because they fairly represent the nature of the service in which Morgan
was constantly engaged during the occupation of Southern Kentucky by the
Confederate army, in the fall of 1861, and the greater part of the
succeeding winter.
Although greatly inferior in dash and execution to the subsequent
cavalry operations of the West, this service of Morgan's was much
superior, in both, to any thing which had, up to that time, been
attempted by either side, and it served to educate Morgan's men and
Morgan himself for the successful conduct of more daring and far more
important enterprises.
A strong and mutual feeling of regard and friendship commenced (during
the period that we served with General Hindman), between the Eighth
Texas (Terry's Rangers), and the squadron, which continued to the close
of the war, growing warmer as Morgan's command grew in numbers, and,
doubtless, it exists, now, in the hearts of the men, who composed the
two organizations. This feeling interfered in some degree with
discipline, for most of the men of both were young and wild, and
inclined, when they could evade the vigilance of camp guards, to rove
nocturnally and extensively, and neither, when on picket, would arrest
or stop their friends from the other command.
The gallant Rangers paid dearly for their proud record, and few of those
who used to roam and fight so recklessly then, are, I fear, living now,
to recall the events which we witnessed together. The squadron remained
with the forces under command of General Hindman until the evacuation of
Bowlinggreen and the retreat from Kentucky. Then we left the scenes and
the region with which we had become so familiar with sad hearts. We had
hoped that when the signal for departure was sounded, it would be also
the order to advance; that we would press on to recover the whole of
Kentucky, and win victories that would give her to us forever, and the
retreat seemed to us like a march to our graves. But a feeling of regret
at leaving the country in which we had passed months of such pleasant
and stirring service, was natural, even without other reasons for it.
Men are apt to become attached to the localities where they have led
free and active lives, and to connect with them agreeable associations.
This country had many such for us, and that part especially between
Bell's tavern on the one side of Green river, and Nolin on the other.
For many miles to the right and left there was scarcely a foot of the
ground which we had not traversed, nor a thicket in which we had not
hidden; from almost every hill we had watched the enemy, and at almost
every turn in the road shot at him. These are not precisely the kind of
reminiscences that the poetical and romantic sigh over, but every man
has a right to be sentimental after his own fashion, and Morgan's men
were always mightily so about the Green river country.