DUKE, Basil Wilson, American lawyer and famous cavalry leader in the Confederate army: b. Scott County, Mo., 28 May 1838; d. New York, 16 Sept. 1916. He was educated at Georgetown (Ky.) College and Danville College and the Lexington Law School. Be fore he had reached his majority. General Duke was active in the group of men who fought to carry Missouri into the Confederacy. He was born in Scott County, Ky., in 1838, but saw his first military service in Missouri. Return ing to Kentucky, he joined his brother-in-law, Gen. John H. Morgan, in raising troops for the Southern Army. From a lieutenant in the famous cavalry organization known as °Mor gan's Raiders,° he rose rapidly to the rank of colonel and led one of the hardest fighting cavalry regiments in the service. He was badly wounded at the battle of Shiloh, but recovered in time to participate in the operations of Morgan's troops in Tennessee and Kentucky, being present at the famous Ohio raid. With
his chief and most of the command he was captured and imprisoned in the Ohio peni tentiary, from which General Morgan dug his way to freedom with most of his men. He frequently distinguished himself for gallantry and the unusual success of the military opera tions he directed, and gained a reputation for daring second only to that of the noted cavalry leader with whom he was associated for the full period of the rebellion.
For more than 20 years Brigadier-General Duke was connected with the law department of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, with headquarters at Louisville. He was the author of many books on finance and the Civil War, among the latter being the 'History of Mor gan's Cavalry' (1867) and 'Reminiscences of Gen. Basil W. Duke' (1911). He also wrote the 'History of the Bank of Kentucky.'