MORGAN'S RAID INTO INDIANA AND OHIO. In the middle of June 1863 General Bragg ordered Gen. John H. Morgan, with 2,000 picked mounted infantry and four guns to move from Tennessee into Kentucky, break up the railroad upon which General Rosecrans depended for supplies, capture Louis ville, destroy the public works and return to Tennessee as quickly as possible. Morgan de termined to exceed his orders and make a raid north of the Ohio. On 2 July, with 2,460 men and four guns, he set out from Burkesville, crossed the Kentucky River in the face of Union troops guarding it, and marched north ward, followed by all the Union detachments within immediate call. He passed through Co lumbia, after a sharp skirmish with about 300 Wolford's Kentucky cavalry, in which he lost about 40 in killed and wounded, and on the 4th reached Green River at Tehb's Bend, and demanded the surrender of Col. 0. H. Moore, who, with about 300 men of the 25th Michigan, was guarding the bridge at that point. Moore replied that the Fourth of July was not a good day to surrender, and was in stantly attacked with artillery' and musketry. After a hard fight of three hours, in which Moore had six killed and 23 wounded, Morgan was repulsed, with a loss of 36 killed and 46 wounded, and drew off, crossing the river below the bridge. On the 5th he defeated and cap tured the small garrison of Lebanon and marched by Bardstown to Brandenburg, on the Ohio, where he arrived on the morning of the 8th, and seizing two steamboats began crossing his command. His passage was disputed by a gunboat and by militia with a field-piece on the Indiana shore, but by the morning of the 9th his whole command was in Indiana. Twenty-four hours later General Hobson, with 2,500 cavalry and mounted infantry and four guns, crossed the river in pursuit, and for 17 days hung upon Morgan's heels. Indiana and Ohio were aroused and turned out their militia by thousands. After crossing the Ohio, Morgan rode north through Corydon, where he was resisted by militia, who were soon overpowered. He then pushed on to Salem, where he captured nearly 400 militia, then through Lexington and Paris to Vernon, near which place on the even ing of the 11th he encountered a stiff resistance from about 1,200 militia under Colonel Love. Under cover of darkness he withdrew from Love's front, and pressing on through Dupont and Sumansville, crossed the Indiana line on the 13th to Harrison, Ohio, and concentrated his command preparatory to making his way across the Ohio into Kentucky, detaching parties to burn bridges and confuse the pursuit, and im pressing fresh horses. Under cover of a feint
on Hamilton he marched by night a few miles north of Cincinnati, moving directly east, closely pursued next day by Hobson, who was marching 40 miles a day, and threatened from all di rections by the militia. Turning toward Berlin, where the government had a large number of animals, he was confronted by a small body of militia under Colonel Runkle, lost much precious time in threatening an attack, drew off closely followed by Runkle, and after dark of the 18th reached the banks of the Ohio, a short distance above Pomeroy, near Buffington Bar and Blennerhasset's Island, where from the first he had planned to escape. His pursuers were closing in on him from every direction. On the west Hobson was hanging on his rear; General Judah, who had been withdrawn from Kentucky, had landed his division at Ports mouth, and was marching up from the south west; regiments were coming down the river from Parkersburg; and gunboats patroled the river and watched the fords. Early in the morning of the 19th Morgan endeavored to cross the river, but was speedily checked. He was attacked in rear by the head of Hobson's column, Judah's cavalry struck him in flank and two gunboats opened upon his front. A severe engagement cost him about 120 killed and wounded, and more than 700 of his officers and men surrendered. Morgan with the re mainder escaped up the river, where he at tempted to cross to Belleville by swimming his horses. Three hundred men, under Colonel Johnson, had crossed when a gunboitt stopped the remainder of the column, Morgan himself returning to the Ohio shore and with about 800 men retreating inland. He had lost all his artillery and trains. He pressed on northeast through Athens and Washington, marching 35 miles a day, burning bridges behind him, with General Shackelford and 500 men close upon his rear and skirmishing with it. Near Saline ville on the 26th Shackelford's advance cap tured 250 men, and later in the day he was intercepted near New Lisbon and Beaver Creek, and surrendered with 364 officers and men. The Union loss in the campaign July 2-26 was 19 killed, 47 wounded and 8 missing. Consult 'Official Records' (Vol. XXIII); Duke, 'His tory of Morgan's Cavalry' ; Senour, 'Morgan and His Captors' ; The Century Company's (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War' (Vols. III and IV).