Saturday, October 02, 1999
Tracing the trail of Morgan's raid
Group promotes sites connected to Confederate general
BY RANDY McNUTT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ripley Co. Treasurer Mary Ann McCoy shows off marker noting Gen. Morgan's raid on Versailles in 1863.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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VERSAILLES, Ind. — On a balmy autumn day on the old town square, you can almost feel the ghost of Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan, who once threatened to blow up the brick Ripley County Courthouse.
“It was only 3 years old then,” said Gary Conant, coordinator of Historic Hoosier Hills. “So when Morgan pointed a cannon in its direction, officials turned over the county's treasury to him.”
From July 8-13, 1863, Gen. Morgan and about 2,000 rebel horsemen flashed across southern Indiana, earning him the nickname “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy.” They wanted to shake up the North, and they did.
Even 136 years later, residents in this town of 1,800 people about 50 miles west of Cincinnati still talk about Gen. Morgan, write about him and ponder his significance. Growing interest in his daring raid has prompted the nonprofit Hoosier group, composed main ly of volunteers, to start the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail. “They see it not only as a heritage tourism attraction, but as a significant part of Indiana history,” Mr. Conant said.
Next spring, the 185-mile driving tour will open from Mauckport, Ind., where the raid began on the Ohio River, to West Harrison, near the Ohio border. Morgan's trail will become a part of the Civil War Discovery Trail, linking 500 sites in 28 states.
Even better, volunteer groups in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee also want to expand Gen. Morgan's trail into their states, so that eventually travelers might go from McMinnville, Tenn., where Gen. Morgan started on June 6, 1863, to West Point, Ohio, where he was captured on July 26.
Tracing his path in Indiana, motorists can use a free brochure on the raid, a booklet and an audio cassette complete with narration and sound effects of horses and cannon fire. A special trail brochure will be distributed to fourth-grade history classes to encourage interest in Indiana's past.
When the trail is ready next spring, 28 interpretative and directional signs will be erected at 25 locations in Harrison, Washington, Scott, Jennings, Jefferson, Ripley and Dearborn counties.
Preparation for the trail comes as a new book, The Longest Raid of the Civil War, gains national attention for writer Lester V. Horwitz, whose Symmes Township house was raided by Gen. Morgan's men on July 14, 1863.
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HITTING THE TRAIL
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Brochures on the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail are available from Historic Hoosier Hills. For postage costs, call the group at 812-689-6410, ext. 5, or write to P.O. Box 407, Versailles, IN 47042.
Morgan's Raid booklets and audio cassettes will be ready soon. Their cost, which will be nominal, has not been determined.
Another detailed publication, Kentucky's Civil War Heritage Trail, is available from the Kentucky Department of Travel Development, P.O. Box 2011, Frankfort, KY 40602. Call 1-800-225-TRIP for information.
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Inspired by his personal connection, Mr. Horwitz drove across the states to see battlefields, roads and towns once visited by Gen. Morgan. Mr. Horwitz later assembled a map depicting Gen. Morgan's zigzagging route from Tennessee to Ohio.
But it took a Hoosier, retired IBM manager Dick Skidmore of Hanover, to dream of opening the Indiana route as an educational program. In the mid-1990s, he suggested the idea to Historic Hoosier Hills, a resource conservation group that represents nine counties. He learned that many people liked his dream. They sought and received grants totaling $118,000, mainly federal transportation money and a stipend from the Civil War Trust, a Washington, D.C., group active in preserving such battle sites.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, other volunteers continued to work on similar plans to reconnect the entire raid route — about 1,100 miles.
“It's hard to imagine that cavalry could ride so far in such a short time,” Mr. Skidmore said. “In Ohio, they did as many as 30 miles a day. Morgan, who was from Kentucky, violated his orders when he crossed the Ohio. He wanted to draw federal troops from Chattanooga, which he accomplished, but once he came across the river, he was trapped. The Confederates would have returned to Kentucky, but Union gunboats waited for them on the river.”
During his raid, the dapper Gen. Morgan looked like a Southern aristocrat, dressed in dark linen jacket, gray pants, riding boots and a wide-brimmed felt hat. He was 38 years old and most of his men were under 25. “They were imbued with the spirit of their commander and were confident in his skill and fortune; no endeavor was deemed impossible or even hazardous when he led,” Mr. Horwitz wrote.
They blew through town after town. Gen. Morgan even brought along his wife. Raiders broke into homes, stole horses, burned small factories and mills and inflicted an estimated $10 million in damage while most Union soldiers were fighting in the South.
In Corydon, Ind., raiders forced a woman to carry water for them and she died of heat exhaustion. They shot a 15-year-old boy who tried to hide his family's horse. In Ripley County, they fatally shot a deaf Methodist preacher named Horsely when he refused to halt. He couldn't hear the command.
“There are hundreds of stories that have been passed down about the raid,” said Stephen Kelley, a Seaman, Ohio, resident and president of the Adams County Historical Society. “One woman in West Union became so fearful that the rebels would take her prized stallion that she put him in her parlor. Her neighbors complained that the horse kept them up all night, snorting and stomping.
In Winchester, Ohio, raiders took a big bolt of cloth from a dry-goods store and unrolled it down Main Street like a welcome mat.
Because the raiders had no radio or television to tell them the location of pursuing federal troops, Gen. Morgan stole mail and local newspapers.
“He waited in Winchester (in Adams County) for the mailman to come,” Mr. Kelley said. “The mailman insisted that he was an agent of the U.S. government, and refused to talk. Morgan said, "Sir, I am the government.' He took the mail.”
Mr. Kelley said the local historical society hopes to establish its own driving tour along the route of Morgan's Raid in Adams County. It's an idea being considered statewide by a group working with the Ohio Bicentennial Commission. The Ohio route could connect to the Indiana trail and to Kentucky's Civil War Heritage Trail.
“It's very feasible,” said Tom Sny der of Cambridge, co-founder of the 2-year-old Ohio Civil War Trail Commission. “There were a number of significant spots on the trail in Ohio. The raid is a big part of our heritage.”
Gen. Morgan's romp ended as he tried to reach a ford at Buffington Island, near Portland on the Ohio River. But instead of crossing the Ohio one night, he decided to wait until morning. By then, the Union army had arrived with gunboats and 8,000 troops. In a heavy fog, the gunboats fired and forced the raiders to run. Gen. Morgan lost 120 men; 700 were captured.
“There are 50-some soldiers buried on the Buffington battlefield in unmarked graves,” Mr. Snyder said. “This is a big issue for us. We want to save the battlefield — and the soldiers — from bulldozers.”
Fleeing north, the raiders had little hope. Near West Point, in Columbiana County, Gen. Morgan ran out of escape routes. He surrendered to Maj. George W. Rue. Gen. Morgan and some officers were sent to the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, but in their typical daring, escaped by digging a tunnel.
On Sept. 4, 1864, his luck finally exhausted, Gen. Morgan was shot in Greeneville, Tenn., by Union soldiers. The man was dead, but not the myth.
Across the region, people never forget the Thunderbolt of the Confederacy. In Versailles, a large historical marker stands on the courthouse lawn to commemorate his visit, on July 12, 1863, and his threat to blow up the building.
“People always tease me that Morgan stole my money,” said Mary Ann McCoy, the Ripley County treasurer. “I guess we'll never get over that day.”
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