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The expedition undertaken by
General John H. Morgan, in the summer of 1863, and known as the “
Indiana and
Ohio raid,” serves more than any other effort of his active and adventurous career to illustrate his audacious strategy, and an account of it may be read with some interest as a contribution to the history of the late civil war. I shall endeavor, therefore, as requested, to narrate its principal incidents; and, in order that a proper understanding of its purpose and importance as a military movement may be had, I must be allowed a brief description of the relative conditions and attitude of the two contending armies in
Tennessee and
Kentucky at that date.
Indeed, if I hope to vindicate
General Morgan's reputation from the charge of senseless audacity to which this raid gave rise, I should premise by saying that in this as in all similar enterprises, he planned and conducted his operations with reference to those of the army to which he was attached, and with strict regard to the exigencies of the general campaign.
While chiefly employed in what the
French term la petite querre, he directed his movements in accordance with the programme of the “great war.”
The military situation in
General Bragg's department was ominous of ill-fortune to the
Confederates.
Bragg's army, always inferior to the one opposing it, in numerical strength, had recently been greatly reduced by large detachments summoned by
General Joseph E. Johnston, to aid in his projected movement to relieve
Vicksburg.
It was confronted at
Tullahoma by the vastly superior forces of
Rosecrans.
General Simon Buckner was holding East
