On Nov. 27, 1863, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan - the leader of 2,000 Confederate troops who four months earlier had terrorized Cincinnati and its environs during the longest cavalry raid of the Civil War - escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus.

Morgan had been captured in Columbiana County, Ohio, then jailed in Cincinnati before being transferred to Columbus. He and several other rebels spent 20 days digging a tunnel through the floor of their cell - reportedly with pilfered kitchen knives.

Morgan went to the Little Miami Railroad station and boarded a train for Cincinnati. He jumped off the train outside town, then paid a man to row him across the Ohio River to Kentucky on a skiff.

Morgan made his way back to the Confederate lines and resumed command. He died in Tennessee on Sept. 4, 1864, at age 39.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com