Confederate wizards of the saddle /

by Bennett H. Young

In December, 1861, when he was a captain, he won reputation by the destruction of the bridge over Bacon’s Creek, twenty miles south of Elizabethtown. At that time the immediate command of the Confederate troops on the south side of Green River was held by General Thomas C. Hindman. He and Morgan were kindred spirits and he aided the cavalryman in many ways in these incursions. General Morgan was overjoyed when he received permission from General Hindman to undertake the destruction of the bridge over Bacon’s Creek. In this enterprise, he was compelled to march for fifty miles in a country well garrisoned by Federal soldiers. His squadron at that time numbered two hundred. Apprehending serious work, he took all his men with him who had mounts that would pass inspection. Nobody could tell what moment Morgan would be compelled to fight, and he aligned every available man. The Confederate forces, by this time, were south of Barren River and it was thirty miles from the Barren to the Green River. Morgan camped the first night a few miles away from Green River, and concentrated his forces in a forest on the top of a hill. He waited until night to resume his march. He crossed the river just above Woodsonville, in Hart County, and riding until midnight reached Bacon’s Creek and was glad to find that there were no guards. His followers at that time were not as experienced in the destruction of bridges as they became later, but after kindling the fires and doing all in their power to aid its destructive agencies, in three hours the bridge crumbled into ruins and its burning timbers told the story of his success. The results from a military standpoint were not great. It delayed the advance of the Federals a few days, but to Morgan and his men it was a great object lesson. They now began to realize how easy it was by these long marches to do immense damage to the means of transportation on which the Federals relied to supply their forces, now slowly but surely making their way southward.

On the 20th of January, 1862, General Morgan undertook a still more perilous task. With five men he left Bell’s Tavern in Barren County, found a ferry where he could cross the Green River, and rode into Lebanon, sixty miles distant, with this small force. Several hundred Federal troops were encamped near Lebanon and there were many blue-coated stragglers in town. Morgan rode furiously up and down through the streets, destroyed supplies and paroled a number of prisoners. Far within the Federal lines, it became necessary for him to resort to strategy. He took from the Federal prisoners their blue overcoats, and he and his soldiers donned these and this enabled him to pass where, if his identity had been known, he would have been captured or killed. Unwilling to return empty-handed after this hazardous journey, he decided to bring with him five prisoners. Mounting them on horses, he added to his trophies some flags. He made a vigorous forced march. This was his only hope of escape from the dangerous situation into which he had fearlessly come.

Pursued by two companies of cavalry he brought his prisoners and trophies to the banks of the Green River and crossed it and turned the ferryboat loose, as the Federals arrived on the opposite shore. These two expeditions, so successful and accomplished under the most difficult surroundings, not only tried the mettle and the courage of Morgan’s followers, but gave their leader a wide reputation for daring. Morgan thus early acquired a taste for such work, which he afterwards carried out on a much larger scale, and with such success, which in a little while would mark him as a great partisan leader.

Between the Green River and the Nolin River, or Creek, was twenty-one miles. Morgan and his scouts had become thoroughly familiar with every foot of ground, and frequent dashes were made by them into this territory. There is nothing can create so much enthusiasm in a soldier as activity and success. The entire command became confident and courageous in such undertakings, and were impatient for their constant repetition.

General Albert Sidney Johnston evacuated Bowling Green on the 14th of February, 1862, and on the 16th of February, Fort Donelson was captured and fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers and a large amount of supplies were surrendered to General Grant. A few days later Nashville, Tennessee, was evacuated. This transferred the operations of the Confederates south and east of Nashville. From the ruins of Fort Donelson, General Nathan Bedford Forrest had brought out his command, and the Confederate cavalry, under Forrest and Morgan, became a part of the garrison at Nashville, immediately preceding its evacuation. When Nashville fell the Confederates moved back to Corinth, Mississippi, and from thence General Johnston advanced against General Grant and on the 6th of April, 1862, fought the Battle of Shiloh. At the termination of this struggle such a ratio of mortality was exhibited as the world had never before seen. At Shiloh two hundred and eighty men in every thousand were struck, and twenty-four thousand dead and wounded was the dreadful echo which came from this scene of havoc, to tell the world the earnestness of the purpose which moved and led the men who had entered into the Civil War.

Change of locality brought no cessation of activity to Morgan and his men. Two days before the Battle of Shiloh he was commissioned a colonel and given authority, which was to him far more pleasing than rank,—to act independently. He had now attained his chiefest ambition. He had a squadron of brave, chivalrous, dashing young men who would follow wherever he led the way and go wherever he told them to go, and he could use them where in his own judgment he could do the most damage to the enemies of the Southland. In the Battle of Shiloh General John C. Breckinridge, so wonderfully beloved by Kentuckians, commanded a division. To this division Morgan’s squadron was now attached. In this battle there was little for the cavalry to do, but they performed every service bravely and cheerfully. Morgan’s losses were slight.

A little while after Shiloh, Morgan received permission to make an expedition into Tennessee. His force had increased to three hundred and twenty-five men; marching with a swiftness that his enemy had not time to calculate, he captured Pulaski, Tennessee, and took four hundred prisoners. Later he made an effort to capture the city of Murfreesboro. Here he met reverses and it required some time for him and his men to recover from the shock of this defeat. Later he made a raid through Tennessee, reaching as far north as Cave City, Kentucky. Early in the spring, Captain John B. Castleman of Lexington brought a company of eighty men, and in May, 1862, two cavalry companies, commanded by Captains Gano and Huffman, came to Morgan. With intense joy he saw his command now increased to five hundred men.

Prior to June, 1862, no really striking cavalry raid had been made. Small forces had succeeded in limited forays, but they had accomplished very little, and the panic produced by the appearance of such squadrons was mild compared with what such expeditions would later develop.

On the 13th of June, 1862, Stuart had ridden around McClellan’s Army, making what was known as the Chickahominy Raid. Before Morgan had heard of this he had secured data for making an expedition into Kentucky, which in the length of march, in the terrorizing of the enemy and in the destruction of property was to be one of the famous cavalry expeditions of the war. A partisan ranger regiment from Georgia, under Colonel A. A. Hunt, had been assigned to Morgan’s command, and he now had, all told, eight hundred and sixty-seven men. A few more than half of this force were Kentuckians. Hope beat high in the bosom of the Kentucky contingent when, on the 4th of July, 1862, they rode out of Knoxville, Tennessee, and took the highway for Sparta, one hundred miles northwest. The portion of Tennessee then compassed by the command was not in sympathy with the Confederacy. It was mountainous, sparsely settled and full of bushwhackers, who improved their skill as marksmen by firing from behind rocks and trees into Morgan’s followers. On the 7th of July they encamped a few miles from Livingston, Tennessee, and by the middle of the day following, the Cumberland River was forded near the village of Selina. Tompkinsville, the county seat of Monroe County, Kentucky, was only eighteen miles distant and here was a portion of a battalion of the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Morgan thought this would prove easy of capture. His presence was unsuspected by the enemy. Sending forward his scouts to investigate, he held his troops on the banks of the Cumberland until darkness came. This gave his men a few hours’ rest and at midnight he resumed the march. He calculated that he could make three miles an hour over the roads, which were extremely rough. A short distance from Tompkinsville, Morgan detailed Gano’s company and a company of Mississippi rangers, under Captain Harris, to take the road to the right and get in the rear of the enemy on the main road which led from Glasgow to Tompkinsville. Just after daybreak he found his enemies. They had intimation of his approach and had made preparations to give him a warm reception. A few volleys were fired, and the 2nd Kentucky regiment, dismounted, assaulted the enemy’s position. In a little while it was all over. Twenty of the enemy were killed and thirty wounded. Some prisoners were taken, but Gano and Harris were in the rear and put themselves across the pathway of the fugitives and Major Jordan, Commandant, and a portion of his command were made captives. Curiously, only one Confederate was wounded. Colonel Hunt, commanding the Georgia regiment, was shot in the leg and the bone shattered. He was left behind and died in a few days. Wagons, arms, munitions of war, the very things Morgan wanted, were found in abundance. As General Morgan set out with two hundred unarmed men, this was a great windfall. Saddles and cavalry equipments were found for many of those who were in want of these essentials.