troops on a hill overlooking the town from the east, while he and his
staff were entertained at the "Williams Mansion," the finest residence
in town. At this time Captain Robert C. Carter, in command of a company
of Colonel Crawford's regiment, was stationed three or four miles north
of the town. He got accurate information of Morgan's whereabouts, and
sent a messenger at once to General A.C. Gillem, at Bull's Gap, sixteen
miles distant. This message was intrusted to John Davis and two other
young men of his company, who rode through a fearful storm, picking
their way by the lightning-flashes and arriving there some time before
midnight. Other messages were probably sent to Gillem that night from
Greeneville, but this was the first received. The report usually given
in the histories to the effect that Mrs. Joseph Williams carried the
news is not correct, as she was known to be in an opposite direction
several miles, and knew nothing of the affair. In an hour after the
message was delivered Gillem's forces were hurrying on their way to
Greeneville, where they arrived about daylight, and surrounded the house
where Morgan was. He ran out, without waiting to dress, to conceal
himself in the shrubbery and grape arbors, but was seen from the street
and shot by Andrew G. Campbell, a private in the 13th Tennessee.
Campbell was promoted to a lieutenancy. Morgan's body was afterward
secured by his friends and given decent burial. But little firing was
done by either army; and after Morgan was killed his forces marched out
of town while the Union forces marched in, in easy range of each other,
yet not a shot was fired on either side.]
The remnant of his old command served during the gloomy winter of
1864-65 in the region where their leader met death, fighting often on
the same ground. When Richmond fell, and Lee surrendered, they marched
to join Joseph E. Johnston. After his capitulation they were part of the
escort that guarded, Jefferson Davis in his aimless retreat from
Charlotte and laid down their arms at Woodville, Georgia, by order of
John. C. Breckinridge, when the armies of the Confederacy were
disbanded, and its President became a fugitive.
II. THE CAPTURE
BY ORLANDO B. WILLCOX
When it was known at Indianapolis that General Morgan, with a large
force, had crossed the Ohio, the city was panic-stricken. The State had
been literally depleted of troops to assist Kentucky, and everybody knew
it. The very worst was apprehended--that railways would be cut up,
passenger and freight trains robbed, bridges and depots burned, our
arsenal pillaged, two thousand Confederate prisoners at Camp Morton
liberated, and Jeffersonville, with all its Government stores, and
possibly Indianapolis itself, destroyed.
Nor was this all. It had been reported, and partly believed, as
afterward indeed proved to be the fact, that the State was literally
undermined with rebel sympathizers banded together in secret
organizations. The coming of Morgan had been looked for, and his
progress through Kentucky watched with considerable anxiety. It was
gloomily predicted that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of "Knights of the
Golden Circle" and of "Sons of Liberty" would flock to his standard and
endeavor to carry the State over to the Confederacy.
Morgan probably had fair reason to believe that his ranks would be at
least largely recruited in the southern counties of Indiana. The
governor of Indiana, Oliver P. Morton, went to work with all his
tremendous energy and indomitable will, in the face of the greatest
opposition that had been encountered in any Northern State, amounting,
just before, almost to open rebellion. He proclaimed martial law, though
not in express terms, and ordered out the "Legion," or militia, and
called upon the loyal citizens of the State to enroll themselves as
minute-men, to organize and report for arms and for martial duty.
Thousands responded to the call within twenty-four hours--many within
two hours.[6] Everything possible was done by telegraph, until the lines
were cut. Some arms were found in the State Arsenal, and more with
accoutrements and ammunition, together with whole batteries of
artillery, were procured from Chicago and St. Louis.
[Footnote 6: According to the report of the adjutant-general of Indiana,
30,000 militia assembled within thirty-six hours, and about the time
Morgan was leaving the State 65,000 men were in the field. In Ohio,
according to a report made to the adjutant-general, 55,000 militia
turned out; many of them refused pay, yet $232,000 were disbursed for
services during the raid. It would appear, therefore, that 120,000
militia took the field against Morgan, in addition to the three brigades
of General Judah's United State cavalry.--EDITOR.]
The disposition of the State levies that came thronging in was left to
me as fast as they were armed. The three great junctions of the Ohio and
Mississippi Railroad in Indiana, over which troops and supplies were
shipped from all points to Rosecrans at Chattanooga--viz., Mitchell,
Seymour, and Vernon,--were first to be made secure; for surely Morgan
must have some military objectives, and these appeared to be the most
likely. The westerly junction was Mitchell. This was quickly occupied
and guarded by General James Hughes, with Legion men, reinforced by the
new organizations rising in that quarter. Seymour was the most central,
and lay directly on the road to Cincinnati and Indianapolis from
Louisville; and at Seymour a brigade was assembled from the center of
the State, with General John Love, a skilful old army officer, to
command it, with instructions to have an eye to Vernon likewise. To this
last point Burnside ordered a battery from Cincinnati; and what few
troops I had in Michigan, though half organized, came down to Vernon and
to General Love. Besides these thus rendezvoused, the people of the
southern counties were called upon to bushwhack the enemy, to obstruct
roads, to guard trains, bridges, etc., and to make themselves generally
useful and pestiferous.
Our militia first came in contact with the enemy opposite Brandenburg,
where he crossed; but it made the stand at Corydon Junction, where the
road runs between two abrupt hills, across which Colonel Lewis Jordan
threw up some light intrenchments. Morgan's advance attempted to ride
over these "rail-piles" rough-shod, but lost some twenty troopers
unhorsed. They brought up their reserve and artillery, flanked, and
finally surrounded Colonel Jordan, who, after an hour's resolute
resistance, surrendered.
This gave the raiders the town, and the citizens the first taste of
Morgan's style, which somewhat disgusted the numerous class of Southern
sympathizers. The shops were given up to plunder, and the ladies levied
on for meals for the whole command.
Throwing out columns in various directions, Morgan pushed for Mitchell,
where no doubt he expected to cut the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, got
as far as Salem in that direction, captured or dispersed a few squads of
badly armed minute-men who were guarding depots and bridges, which he
burned, and doubtless hearing from his scouts, sent out in citizens'
clothes, of Hughes's force collected at Mitchell, he discreetly turned
off northeastward, apparently aiming next for Seymour. This I heard with
great satisfaction.
The panic at Indianapolis began to subside. Still I felt uneasy for
Seymour, as I next heard of Morgan at Vienna, where he tapped the
telegraph-lines and learned what he could of all our plans to catch him.
He came within nine miles of Seymour. General Love sent out a
reconnaissance of sharpshooters under Colonel C.V. De Land, with a
couple of field-pieces. They found that Morgan had turned off eastward.
Love divined his object, and started De Land and two Indiana regiments
of militia for Vernon. Here Morgan next turned up, planted his Parrotts,
and demanded surrender. He was defied until Love's arrival with the rest
of his militia, and then he swept off in a hurry from Vernon, followed
by our men, who captured his pickets and rear-guard, but who, having no
cavalry, were soon outmarched.
Morgan secured a great advantage by seizing all the horses within
reach,[7] leaving none for the militia or for General E.H. Hobson, which
enabled him to gain on his pursuers, and he would then have left Hobson
far out of sight but for the home guard, who obstructed the roads
somewhat, and bushwhacked his men from every hedge, hill, or tree, when
it could be done. But the trouble was that we could not attack him with
sufficient organized numbers.
[Footnote 7: General J.M. Shackelford says in his official report: "Our
pursuit was much retarded by the enemy's burning all the bridges in our
front. He had every advantage. His system of horse-stealing was perfect.
He would despatch men from the head of each regiment, on each side of
the road, to go five miles into the country, seizing every horse, and
then fall in at the rear of the column. In this way he swept the country
for ten miles of all the horses."--EDITOR.]
After he left Vernon we felt safe at Indianapolis. "Defensive sites"
were abandoned, and the banks brought back their deposits which they
had sent off by express to Chicago and the North. Some fears, or hopes,
were entertained as to Madison, toward which Morgan next bent his
way--fears for the safety of that city, and hopes that, with the help of
Judah's troops and the gunboats now on the way up the river, we might
put an end to the raid. From Indianapolis we started General Lew Wallace
with a good brigade of minute-men, and with high hopes that at either
Madison or Lawrenceburg, farther up the river, he might "capture them."
The people ahead were asked by telegraph to cooeperate. But after going
down that line as far as Dupont, Morgan turned northeast for Versailles,
where we next heard of him threatening the Cincinnati and Indianapolis
Railway. This was a nice bit of work. He baffled all our calculations,
and did some damage on both the Ohio and Mississippi and Cincinnati
railroads, sending off flying columns in a dozen directions at a time
for the purpose, as well as to throw Hobson off the scent. Some of these
columns looked like traveling circuses adorned with useless plunder and
an excess of clowns. Thus they went through Pierceville and Milan to
Harrison, on White River, and on the Ohio line. Here Hobson's advance
came upon them, but unfortunately it paused to plant artillery, instead
of dashing across the bridge and engaging the raiders until the main
body should arrive. This lost us the bridge, which was burned before our
eyes, and many hours' delay, marching round by the ford. Their next
demonstration was toward Hamilton. Here there was a fine railway bridge
over the Big Miami. Hobson followed in such close pursuit through New
Baltimore, Glendale, and Miamiville that the raiders did little damage.
Their attempt to burn a bridge at Miamiville was repulsed by the home
guard. My last troops were despatched from Indianapolis to head them off
at Hamilton, after five hours' delay caused by the intoxication of their
commander. His successor in command was General Hascall, who swore like
a trooper to find himself "just in time to be too late." He proceeded
through Hamilton, Ohio, as far as Loveland. But Morgan had sent only a
detachment toward Hamilton to divert attention from Cincinnati, toward
which he made a rapid march with his whole united force.
Governor Tod of Ohio had already called out the militia and proclaimed
martial law. He raised men enough, but Burnside had to organize and arm
them. Morgan found the great city guarded, but he passed through the
very suburbs by a night march around it, unmolested. He crossed the
Little Miami Railroad at daylight, and came north in sight of Camp
Dennison, where Colonel Neff half armed his convalescents, threw out
pickets, dug rifle-pits, and threw up intrenchments. His fiery old
veterans saved a railway bridge, and actually captured a lieutenant and
others before they sheered off and went some ten miles northward to
Williamsburg. From that point they seemed to be steering for the great
bend of the Ohio at Pomeroy.
In the vicinity of Cincinnati, Colonel W.P. Sanders, the splendid raider
of East Tennessee, came up from Kentucky with some Michigan cavalry, and
joined Hobson in pursuit, and these were about the only fresh horses in
the chase. Sanders had come by steamer, and, landing at Cincinnati, had
been thrown out from there, it was hoped, ahead of Morgan, who, however,
was too quick for him. They met later on.
Under the good management of Colonel A.V. Kautz in advance, with his
brigade, and of Sanders, the men now marched more steadily and gained
ground. Kautz had observed how the other brigade commanders had lost
distance and blown their horses by following false leads, halting and
closing up rapidly at the frequent reports of "enemy in front," and by
stopping to plant artillery. Marching in his own way, at a steady walk,
his brigade forming the rear-guard, he had arrived at Batavia two hours
before the main body, that had been "cavorting round the country" all
day, "misled by two citizen guides"--possibly Morgan's own men.
Not stopping to draw the rations sent out to him from Cincinnati, Hobson
urged his jaded horses through Brown, Adams, and Pike counties, now
under the lead of Kautz, and reached Jasper, on the Scioto, at midnight
of the 16th, Morgan having passed there at sundown. The next day they
raced through Jackson. On the 18th, Hobson, at Rutland, learned that
Morgan had been turned off by the militia at Pomeroy, and had taken the
Chester road for Portland and the fords of the Ohio. The chase became
animated. Our troopers made a march of fifty miles that day and still
had twenty-five miles to reach Chester. They arrived there without a
halt at eleven at night, and had still fifteen miles to reach the ford.
They kept on, and at dawn of the 19th struck the enemy's pickets. Two
miles out from Portland, Morgan was brought to bay--and not by Hobson
alone. First came the militia, then came Judah. His division had pushed
up the river in steamers parallel with Morgan's course. Lieutenant John
O'Neil, afterward of Fenian fame, with a troop of Indiana cavalry, kept
up the touch on Morgan's right flank by a running fight, stinging it at
every vulnerable point, and reporting Morgan's course to Judah in the
neck-and-neck race. Aided by the local militia, O'Neil now dashed ahead
and fearlessly skirmished with the enemy's flankers from every coign of
vantage. He reached the last descent to the river-bottom near Buffington
Bar, and near the historical Blennerhasset's Island, early on the
morning of the 19th.
The Ohio River was up. It had risen unexpectedly. But here Morgan must
cross, if at all. It could not be forded by night, when he got here. He
tried the ford at Blennerhasset. Failing in this, his men collected
flatboats, and set to work calking them, meantime sending a party to
Buffington Bar, where they found a small earthwork and captured its
guard; and these things delayed them until morning. General Judah
attempted a reconnaissance, resulting in a fight, which he describes as
follows in his report:
Before leaving Pomeroy I despatched a courier to General Hobson,
apprising him of my direction, and requesting him to press the
enemy's rear with all the forces he could bring up. Traveling all
night, I reached the last descent to the river-bottom at
Buffington Bar at 5.30 A.M. on the 19th. Here, halting my force,
and placing my artillery in a commanding position, I determined
to make a reconnaissance in person, for the purpose of
ascertaining if a report just made to me--that the gunboats had
left on a previous evening, the home guards had retreated, and
that the enemy had been crossing all night--was true. A very
dense fog enveloped everything, confining the view of surrounding
objects to a radius of about fifty yards. I was accompanied by a
small advance-guard, my escort, and one piece of Henshaw's
battery, a section of which, under Captain Henshaw, I had ordered
to join my force. I advanced slowly and cautiously along a road
leading toward the river, ... when my little force found itself
enveloped on three sides--front and both flanks--by three
regiments, dismounted, and led by Colonel Basil [W.] Duke, just
discernible through the fog, at a distance of from fifty to a
hundred yards. This force, as I afterward learned, had been
disposed for the capture of the home guards, intrenched on the
bank of the river. To use Colonel Duke's own expression after his
capture, "He could not have been more surprised at the presence
of my force if it had been dropped from the clouds." As soon as
discovered, the enemy opened a heavy fire, advancing so rapidly
that before the piece of artillery could be brought into battery
it was captured, as were also Captain R.C. Kise, my assistant
adjutant-general, Captain Grafton, volunteer aide-de-camp, and
between twenty and thirty of my men. Two privates were killed.
Major McCook (since dead), paymaster and volunteer
aide-de-camp,[8] Lieutenant F.G. Price, aide-de-camp, and ten men
were wounded. Searching in vain for an opening through which to
charge and temporarily beat back the enemy, I was compelled to
fall back upon the main body, which I rapidly brought up into
position, and opened a rapid and beautifully accurate artillery
fire from the pieces of the 5th Indiana upon a battery of two
pieces which the enemy had opened upon me, as well as upon his
deployed dismounted force in line. Obstructing fences prevented a
charge by my cavalry. In less than half an hour the enemy's lines
were broken and in retreat. The advance of my artillery, and a
charge of cavalry made by Lieutenant O'Neil, 5th Indiana Cavalry,
with only fifty men, converted his retreat into a rout, and
drove him upon General Hobson's forces, which had engaged him
upon the other road. His prisoners, the piece of artillery lost
by me, all of his own artillery (five pieces), his camp equipage,
and transportation and plunder of all kinds, were abandoned and
captured. We also captured large numbers of prisoners, including
Colonels Basil [W.] Duke, Dick [R.C.] Morgan, and Allen [Ward?],
and the most of General Morgan's staff.
[Footnote 8: Major Daniel McCook, father of the famous fighting family,
who pushed himself in, against remonstrance, to find the slayer of his
son (General Robert L. McCook), reported to be with Morgan.]
Yet with a considerable force Morgan succeeded in making his escape, and
started into the interior like a fox for cover. Passing around the
advanced column of his enemy, he suddenly came upon the end of
Shackelford's column, under Wolford, whom he at once attacked with his
usual audacity. Shackelford reversed his column, selected his best
horses, and gave pursuit. He overtook the enemy at Backum Church, where
Wolford's Kentucky fellows rushed upon Morgan's men with drawn sabers
and Kentucky yells, and chased them until next afternoon, when they were
found collected on a high bluff, where some hundreds surrendered; but
Morgan again escaped, and with over six hundred horsemen gave our
fellows a long chase yet by the dirt road and by rail. Continuing north
through several counties, he veered northwest toward the Pennsylvania
line, even now burning buildings, car-loads of freight, and bridges by
the way, though hotly hounded by Shackelford, and flanked and headed off
by troops in cars.
Among the latter was Major W.B. Way, of the 9th Michigan, with a
battalion of his regiment. Way had left the cars at Mingo and marched
over near to Steubenville,[9] where he began a skirmish which lasted
over twenty-five miles toward Salineville, away up in Columbiana County.
Here he brought Morgan to bay. The latter still fought desperately,
losing 200 prisoners, and over 70 of his men killed or wounded, and
skipped away. Another Union detachment came up by rail under Major
George W. Rue, of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry, joined Shackelford at
Hammondsville, and took the advance with 300 men.
[Footnote 9: Mr. E.E. Day makes the following statement in regard to
Morgan's brief stay at Wintersville:
Defeated at Buffington Bar, Morgan abandoned his plan of making a
watering trough of Lake Erie, and fled north through the tier of
river counties, keeping within a few miles of the Ohio. The river
was low, but not fordable except at Coxe's Riffle, a few miles
below Steubenville. Headed at this point also, he struck across
the country and passed through Wintersville, a small village five
miles west of Steubenville. That was a memorable Saturday in
Wintersville. Morgan's progress across the State had been watched
with the most feverish anxiety, and the dread that the village
might lie in his path filled the hearts of many. The wildest
rumors passed current. Morgan and his "guerrillas," it was said,
would kill all the men, lay the village in ashes, and carry off
the women and children. The militia, or "hundred-day men," who
lived in or near the village, drilled in the village streets, and
fired rattling volleys of blank cartridges at a board fence, in
preparation for the coming conflict. On Friday evening word came
that Morgan would attempt to force a passage at Coxe's Riffle the
next morning, and the militia marched to Steubenville to help
intercept him. A bloody battle was expected. About the middle of
the forenoon a horseman dashed into the village shouting,
"Morgan's coming! He's just down at John Hanna's!" and galloped
on to warn others. Mr. Hanna was a farmer living about a mile
south of the village. He had shouldered his musket and gone with
the militia, leaving his wife and two children at home. About ten
o'clock Morgan's men were seen coming up the road. Mrs. Hanna
with her children attempted to reach a neighbor's house, but they
were overtaken and ordered to the house, which they found full of
soldiers. Morgan and his officers were stretched, dusty clothes,
boots, and all, upon her beds, and a negro was getting dinner.
While the third table was eating, a squad of militiamen appeared
on a neighboring hill. Morgan ordered their capture, saying,
"What will those Yankees do with the thousand men I have?" A
number of Morgan's men started to carry out their chief's
command, but the militia made good their escape. Soon after, word
came that Shackelford's men were near, and Morgan left so
hurriedly that he neglected to take the quilts and blankets his
men had selected.