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AllegianceService/ branchYears of service1846–1847 (USA)1857–1861 (Kentucky militia)1861–1864 (CSA)Rank(USA)(CSA)Battles/warsSpouse(s)Rebecca Gratz BruceMartha ReadySignatureJohn H. Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was a in the.
Morgan never used his middle name of Hunt during the war — it is a post war appellation.In April 1862, he raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, fought at, and then launched a costly raid in Kentucky, which encouraged 's invasion of that state. He also attacked the supply-lines of General. In July 1863, he set out on a 1,000-mile raid into Indiana and Ohio, taking hundreds of prisoners. But after most of his men had been intercepted by Union gunboats, Morgan surrendered at Salineville, Ohio, the northernmost point ever reached by uniformed Confederates.
The legendary ', which had been carried out against orders, gained no tactical advantage for the Confederacy, while the loss of his regiment proved a serious setback.Morgan escaped from his Union prison but his credibility was low, and he was restricted to minor operations. He was killed at, in September 1864.
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Morgan was the brother-in-law of Confederate general. Contents.Early life and career John H. Morgan was born in, the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan. He was an uncle of geneticist and a maternal grandson of, an early founder of, and one of the first west of the. He was also the brother-in-law of and of. He was said to be a direct descendant of general and hero., whose own great grand-uncle was perhaps history's most successful,.John Wesley Hunt, Morgan's grandfather, was a leading landowner and businessman in Kentucky and was the first millionaire west of the Allegheny Mountains.
'His business empire included interest in banking, horse breeding, agriculture and hemp manufacturing. Among his business associates were Henry Clay and John Jacob Astor.' Morgan's paternal grandparents were Luther and Anna (Cameron) Morgan. Luther Morgan had settled in Huntsville, but a downturn in the cotton economy forced him to mortgage his holdings. His father, Calvin Morgan, lost his Huntsville home in 1831 when he was unable to pay the property taxes following the failure of his.
The family then moved to Lexington, where he would manage one of his father-in-law's sprawling farms.Morgan grew up on the farm outside of Lexington and attended for two years, but was suspended in 1844 for with a. In 1846, Morgan became a, at Daviess Lodge #22,. Morgan desired a military career, but the small size of the US military severely limited opportunities for officer's commissions.In 1846 Morgan enlisted with his brother Calvin and uncle Alexander in the as a cavalry during the. He was elected second lieutenant and was promoted to first lieutenant before arriving in Mexico, where he saw combat in the. On his return to Kentucky, he became a manufacturer and in 1848, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce, the 18-year-old sister of one of his business partners. Morgan also hired out his slaves and occasionally sold them. After the death of John Wesley Hunt in 1849, his fortunes greatly improved as his mother, Henrietta, began financing his business ventures.In 1853, his wife delivered a stillborn son.
She contracted, popularly known as 'milk leg', an infection of a blood clot in a vein, which eventually led to an amputation. They became increasingly emotionally distant from one another. Known as a gambler and womanizer, Morgan was also known for his generosity. He had at least one slave son, Sidney Morgan, by a slave woman, and was the biological grandfather of African American inventor (1877-1963).Morgan remained interested in the military. He raised a artillery company in 1852, but it was disbanded by the state legislature two years later. In 1857, with the rise of sectional tensions, Morgan raised an independent company known as the 'Lexington Rifles,' and spent much of his free time drilling his men.Civil War service. Former location of inLike 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 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 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, by way of a steamer from Louisville, he quietly left for Camp Boone, just across the Tennessee border, 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, Morgan and his militia company went to Tennessee and joined the. Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment and became its on April 4, 1862.Morgan and his cavalrymen fought at the in April 1862, and he soon became a symbol to in their hopes for obtaining Kentucky for the Confederacy. A Louisiana writer, Robert D.
Patrick, compared Morgan to and wrote that 'a few thousands of such men as his would regain us Kentucky and Tennessee.' In his first Kentucky raid, Morgan left on July 4, 1862, with almost 900 men and in three weeks swept through Kentucky, deep in the rear of '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 military government, and President received so many frantic appeals for help that he complained that 'they are having a stampede in Kentucky.' Historian wrote that Morgan's feat 'in many ways surpassed 's celebrated 'Ride around ' and the the previous spring.' The success of Morgan's raid was one of the key reasons that the of and was launched later that fall, assuming that tens of thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army if they invaded the state.As a colonel, he was presented with a Palmetto Armory pistol by the widow of Brigadier General That pistol is now owned by the Museum of the American Civil War.Morgan was promoted to (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 on May 1, 1863, for his raids on the supply lines of Major General in December and January, most notably his victory at the on December 7.On December 14,1862, Morgan married Martha 'Mattie' Ready, the daughter of and a of, another former U.S. Representative from Tennessee.Morgan's Raid. General John H. MorganHoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of and in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as '.
Morgan crossed the Ohio River, and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio. At Corydon, Indiana, the raiders met 450 local Home Guard in that resulted in eleven Confederates killed and five Home Guard killed.In July, at Versailles, IN, while soldiers raided nearby militia and looted county and city treasuries, the jewels of the local masonic lodge were stolen. When Morgan, a, learned of the theft he recovered the jewels and returned them to the lodge the following day.After several more skirmishes, during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers , Morgan's raid almost ended on July 19, 1863, at, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the into. Intercepted by Union gunboats, over 300 of his men succeeded in crossing. Most of Morgan's men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous camp in, which had a very high death rate.
On July 26, near, Morgan and his exhausted, hungry and saddlesore soldiers were. It was the farthest north that any uniformed Confederate troops would penetrate during the war.On November 27, Morgan and six of his officers, most notably, escaped from their cells in the 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 General not to cross the river. Despite the raiders' best efforts, Union forces had amassed nearly 110,000 militia in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; dozens of along the; 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 loss of Morgan's light cavalry far outweighed the benefits.Late career and death After his return from Ohio, Morgan returned to active duty.
However, the men he was assigned were in no way comparable to those he had lost. Morgan once again began raiding into Kentucky.
However his men lacked discipline, and he was unwilling or unable to control them, leading to open pillaging along with high casualties. The raids of this season were in risky defiance of a strategic situation in the border states that had changed radically from the year before. Union military occupation of this region, long denied to major Confederate armies, had progressed to the point that even highly mobile raiders could no longer count on easily evading them. Northern public outrage at Morgan's raid across the Ohio River may well have contributed to this state of affairs.His 'Last Kentucky Raid' was carried out in June 1864, the high-water mark of which was the.
After winning a minor victory on June 11 against an inferior infantry unit in the engagement known as the Battle of Keller's Bridge on the, near, Morgan decided to take a chance the following day on another contest against superior Union mounted forces that were known to be approaching. The result was a disaster for the Confederates, resulting in the destruction of Morgan's force as a cohesive unit, only a small fraction of whom escaped with their lives and liberty as fugitives, including the General and some of his officers.After the flashy but unauthorized 1863 Ohio raid, Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg. Nevertheless, 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. Yet around this time some Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditrylikely leading to his removal from command. He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville, Tennessee.On September 4, 1864, he was surprised by a Union raid on.
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While attempting to retreat, he was shot in the back and killed by Union cavalrymen.Morgan was buried in. The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child, another daughter.Legacy. Morgan's Grave, in. Hart County High School, in, the site of the Battle for the Bridge, named their mascot the Raiders, in honor of Morgan's men.
Also, a large mural in the town depicts Morgan. Trimble County High School, in, named their mascot the Raiders, in honor of Morgan's men. The statue in Lexington is a tribute to him. The statue was relocated from the courthouse lawn in July 2018, the same location where slave auctions were held.
Civil War HatThe tragic story behind this hat has its roots in an overlooked theater of the Civil War—the action west of the Mississippi.Ozem Gardner, chaplain for the 13th Kansas Infantry, found the hat on a little-known but important battlefield in Arkansas. In late summer of 1863, Union and Confederate forces clashed over control of, Arkansas. The fort was important because it lay along an old military road, it was located on the Arkansas River, and because Native Americans-many of whom were loyal to the Confederacy-lived just to the west.Confederate troops used the fort as a base from which to raid federal supply trains, interrupt lines of communication, and skirmish with Union soldiers. Their strategy was to draw attention and, most importantly, troops from the eastern theater of the war. But by late 1863, this approach was failing.
Union forces succeeded in winning Fort Smith back from the Rebels in a series of encounters in late August.Ozem Gardner mustered in with the 13th Kansas Infantry on September 1, replacing the previous chaplain who had died of disease. It is unclear whether Gardner actually witnessed any of the action at Fort Smith, but at some point he did venture onto the battlefield to collect souvenirs.
He picked up this hat and a sword from the body of a dead Confederate soldier.This style of hat is called 'slouch' or 'beehive,' and was common in all theaters of the war. Made of olive-green wool felt, it has a wide floppy brim with traces of brown grosgrain ribbon to stiffen the edge so it could be worn flat or slightly turned up. Fade lines on the pointed crown indicate it probably was creased during wear. It may have lain on the Fort Smith battlefield for days, suffering the elements before being picked up by Rev. This would account for its present distorted shape.Ozem Gardner was born in Ohio to parents who were staunch abolitionists. He later trekked to Iowa, married, and moved his family to Kansas in the late 1850s during the era, founding the town of Gardner that still bears his name. By 1860 Ozem had moved to the far northeast corner of the territory, preaching in the area around Elwood.
This small town overlooked the Missouri River and the bordering slave state of Missouri. Years later, one of Gardner's friends related the story that Ozem spied a rebel flag flying from a tree in Elwood, along with a notice claiming any man removing it would be shot. It is telling of Ozem's character that he climbed the tree and took down the flag anyway. Perhaps Gardner's strong abolitionist beliefs later persuaded him to muster in as a Union chaplain.Western Arkansas During the WarLife was miserable in western Arkansas by the summer of 1864, nearly a year after Gardner enlisted in the 13th Kansas. Confederate Colonel (a Cherokee) initiated a series of attacks on Fort Smith in late July, with an eye towards recapturing it. He nearly succeeded.
On at least one occasion, Watie's Cherokees tangled with African American troops of the -an incident unparalleled in the war's eastern theater but not uncommon in the west. According to one report, these attacks 'became so numerous and bold in the vicinity of. Fort Smith, that small squads dare not venture beyond the line of entrenchments except at the peril of life or captivity.'
The Civil War west of the Mississippi River differed from the eastern theater in that it was more of a guerilla conflict. Private citizens in western Arkansas had to endure the harassment of Watie's Confederate forces, but even more demoralizing to Union supporters were attacks by guerillas who roamed the region in small bands. These opportunists stole livestock, destroyed property, and even murdered people who supported the Union cause.
Refugees began flooding Fort Smith and other nearby federal garrisons. Rations were short because Watie had disrupted supply lines, and now the garrisons were responsible for hundreds of Union sympathizers. The refugee camps were crowded and dirty, and disease spread quickly. Faced with these conditions, soldiers began escorting refugees northward to safer territory.Rev. Ozem Gardner accompanied at least one such expedition.
The trip proved successful for the refugees, but on the return Gardner and a detachment of six soldiers made a fatal mistake. They separated from the command to take a shortcut to camp. Guerillas attacked before they could rejoin the larger group. Four people were killed, including Ozem Gardner.
He thus entered history as one of perhaps 70 Union chaplains (out of 3,000) who died in the service of their country during the Civil War.This hat was donated to the Kansas Historical Society by Solomon Miller, who received the souvenir from his friend Ozem Gardner while on military leave in 1863. It is in the collections of the Society's.Listen to the Slouch Hat podcast.
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