Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

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At the close of May, Morgan entered Kentucky by way of Pound Gap,

May 29, 1864.

with about twenty-five hundred men, indifferently mounted. He managed to evade General Burbridge, who was in that region with a strong force, contemplating an advance into Southwestern Virginia in co-operation with Crook and Averill, who were to march up the Kanawha, in the direction of the Blue Ridge. Morgan always managed to live off the country he was in; so now he sent men ahead to seize fresh horses from friends or foes, and by that means his followers were soon so well mounted that they were enabled to sweep rapidly through the eastern counties of Kentucky, from Johnson to Harrison, by way of Paintville on the west fork of the Big Sandy, through Hazel Green, Owensville, and Mount Sterling, to Paris and Cynthiana, in the richest part of the commonwealth, and to give to that region a new claim to the title of “the dark and bloody ground.” He captured Mount Sterling, Paris, Cynthiana, and Williamstown, almost without resistance; and burnt railway trains, stations, and bridges, tore up tracks, and plundered without fear, for the troops in the path of his desolation were too few or feeble to check him. His men were divided into raiding parties, and one of these, three hundred strong, led by Colonel Giltner, actually pushed General Hobson, with twelve hundred well-armed men, into a bend of the Licking River, in Nicholas County, and captured him and his troops.

When General Burbridge was told of Morgan's passage of the mountains, he started promptly in pursuit, and, by a forced march of ninety miles, surprised him by a stout blow

June 9.

at Mount Sterling, which sent him bounding forward. With a part of his force the guerrilla pushed into Lexington, and entering it just past midnight, burned the railway station there and other property, and then hurried toward Frankfort. At the same time another portion of his followers set fire to Cynthiana, but near there Burbridge struck them an awfully shattering blow while they were breakfasting. That blow killed or wounded three hundred of them, while four hundred men were made prisoners, and a thousand horses were spoils for the victors. It also liberated some of Hobson's men. Burbridge's loss was about one hundred and fifty men.

Morgan was amazed and bewildered by this staggering blow, and, with the wreck of his command, he reeled back into Southwestern Virginia, and made his way into the valley of East Tennessee. There, with a small band, he did what he might to harass the Union troops in that region and distress the loyal inhabitants. Finally, early in September, when he was at Greenville, with his thin brigade lying near, his force was assailed by troops under General Gillem. These made a forced night march from Bull's Gap, sixteen miles distant. The Confederates were surprised and driven with a loss of about one hundred killed and seventy-five wounded. Morgan and a portion of his staff were then at the house of Mrs. Catherine D. Williams, in Greenville, which was surrounded by the Union troops, and the guerrilla leader was shot dead while trying to escape.

The writer, with his traveling companions already mentioned (Messrs. Dreer and Greble), visited Greenville and other places in the great Valley of East Tennessee, while on our journey, in May, 1866, from the scenes of Sherman's Atlantic campaigns, into Virginia, to visit the theater of the