MORGAN, JOHN HUNT (1825-1864), American Confed erate soldier, was born in Huntsville, Ala., on June 1, 1825, and was brought up near Lexington, Ky. In the Mexican War he was a first lieutenant of a cavalry regiment. On the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Confederate army and, being an able scout, was made commander of a cavalry squadron. He was commis sioned a colonel after the battle of Shiloh, and in July 1862 made the first of his famous raids, threatening Louisville and Cincin nati. In August and September he took part in General Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky, and again threatened Ohio. In December he defeated the Union garrison at Hartsville, Tenn., was commissioned brig.-general for this success, and soon after ward again raided Kentucky. To cover Bragg's movement from Tullahoma to Chattanooga Morgan made, in July 1863, his raid into Indiana and through Ohio, though Bragg had instructed him to confine himself to Kentucky. With 2,46o men he crossed the
Cumberland, near Burkesville, Ky., on July 2; on the 5th he cap tured a garrison at Lebanon, and on the 13th entered Ohio near Harrison. The regular cavalry was now close behind him. He marched through the suburbs of Cincinnati on the night of the 13th and on the 18th reached Portland, near Buffington island, where in a sharp battle he lost 600 or more men, and as many more surrendered. On the 26th he surrendered to General Shackelford at New Lisbon. He was imprisoned in the peniten tiary at Columbus, from which on the night of Nov. 27 he es caped. In the spring of 1864 he was put in virtual command of the department of south-western Virginia, and late in August he took command at Jonesboro, Ga. On Sept. 4 he was shot in a garden in Greenville, Tenn., having been betrayed, it appears, to the Federals.
See Basil W. Duke, History of Morgan's Cavalry (1867).