Saturday, October 02, 1999
Civil War raid on house in Symmes inspired book
BY RANDY McNUTT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SYMMES TOWNSHIP — If layers of time really exist, stacked one upon another like blankets on a bed, then Lester V. Horwitz's house might be visited by time travelers who like the Civil War.
Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan raided the antebellum farm house on July 14, 1863, when it was 14 years old and stood on an 88-acre farm.
“The house got me interested in Morgan's Raid,” Mr. Horwitz said. “If I hadn't moved into it in the late 1970s, then I would have never written anything about the raid.”
Mr. Horwitz, an advertising agency owner, has written a new book, The Longest Raid of the Civil War, about Gen. Morgan's 1,000-mile ride from Tennessee to Ohio.
The book took 20 years to research and about five years to write. It includes battle strategies and stories about the raiders.
“I focus on what the civilians were thinking,” he said. “I sent letters to the editors of newspapers along the raid route. I said, "If your family was affected by the raid, Lester Horwitz wants to know.' People responded from all over the country. At first I wondered why. Then I realized that the descendants had moved, but they continued to subscribe to the hometown papers.”
At Mr. Horwitz's house, Morgan's men stole two horses from owner Nathaniel Humphrey, who later received $155 reimbursement.
When Mr. Horwitz learned this minor fact, he became so curious that he read everything he could about Gen. Morgan and the Civil War.
Mr. Horwitz traveled across the raid route to interview descendants of participants and conduct research on historic places and figures. He also obtained local records to determine which citizens asked the states to reimburse them for damage inflicted.
“That's one way I could determine Morgan's route,” he said. “The units came across the Indiana border near Harrison and continued through the Cincinnati area and on to Loveland and Clermont County. ”
Mr. Horwitz has compiled a book of 455 pages, complete with many photographs and maps. He says he is selling 200 copies a week, and receiving numerous offers to speak.
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