Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 24.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

Morgan's famous raid. [from the Richmond times, July 12, 1896.] how he swept through Fifty=two towns like a cyclone.

Our entire command consisted of about 1,500 men, all brave and resolute, well armed and mounted, and eager for the race. General Basil Duke and Colonel Dick Morgan were in the van, Captain [195] McFarland, of the Second Kentucky cavalry, being the senior captain and acting as major.

From Burksville we proceeded on through Columbia, Campbellsville and Lebanon, where the command fought from early dawn till late in the evening, putting to rout the enemy and capturing many of them, and destroying the government property. Thence to Springfield and Bardstown, whence the Yankees trailed their banners and fled at the sight of the Stars and Bars; thence through Bloomington, Garnetsville, to Brandenburg, on the Ohio river, where the command captured two steamboats, and one-half of the command were crossed over to fight out and disperse about 1,000 men ensconsed in a wheat-field on the Indiana side, while the other half were engaged with two gunboats that had come down the river to prevent the crossing.

General Morgan had brought his artillery to bear on them, and in the engagements one of the gunboats was badly crippled, while the other had to assist it to save the crew, and they skedaddled up the river. The army all crossed over to a man, and the enemy in the wheat-field were captured and dispersed, all prisoners being paroled.

Being on the Indiana side, strict orders were given to keep in line and have no straggling. They moved on to Corydon, where the enemy, made up of citizens and soldiers, had the foolhardiness to send out a flag of truce and demand an immediate surrender, but it was promptly returned with the order to surrender at once, or the town would be torn to pieces with shot and shell.

They surrendered without much fighting. About 1,200 were captured, and a large amount of government stores were destroyed. The command proceeded to Palmyra, where a short fight took place and more government stores were destroyed. Occasionally some parties would cheer the command; they were evidently Southern sympathisers. This, however, was in the Hoosier, but not in the Buckeye State. The command moved on to Canton, where more prisoners were taken, and more property destroyed; thence to New Philadelphia, with more prisoners and a skirmish. In fact, the command was never out of the sound of arms, or the flash of gunpowder.

The command then moved on through Vienna, Lexington, Paris, Vernon, Dupont and Versailles. There the command had a pretty good skirmish, and more government property was destroyed.

The country passed through was well cultivated and in fine crops, and the citizens moved and looked as if no war was on hand. No [196] pillaging or thieving was allowed, and none of it was done. Only provisions for men and provender for stock were taken, and Confederate money offered, which was refused. The command was kept under strict orders and discipline enforced. The Yankee women had no smiles for us, and treated and looked upon us as savages.

The command had fighting and skirmishing through the towns of New Boston, New Baltimore, Williamsburg, Sardinia, Winchester, Jacksonville, Locust Grove, Jasper, Packville, Beaver, Jackson, Butland, Chester and Buffington's Island. Here it attempted to cross the Ohio river in the face of all the gunboats on the river and 40,000 cavalry and citizens, and held them in check for three hours, when General Basil Duke and half of the command were taken prisoners and sent down the river to Cincinnati. There, the people, it is said, treated them to all manner of abuse they could devise. The little boys were allowed to spit in their faces. From there they were sent to Camp Morton, Ind., where they were stripped, their clothes searched, and not as much as a button left them.

At Buffington's Island General Morgan and the other half of the command cut their way through the Yankee files and went on till the 26th of July, passing through the following towns in Ohio: Portland, Harrisonville, Nelsonville, Cumberland, Greenville, Washington, Moorefield, Smithland, New Alexandria, Richmond, Springfield, Mechanicsville, West Point and Salineville. Near the last place General Morgan and his brother, Colonel Morgan, were captured with the rest of the command, the chief officers being sentenced to the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio, and the rest of the command to Camp Chase, receiving the same treatment as the others. The general and his part of the command were in about ten miles of the Pennsylvania line, fighting all the way.

The number of towns passed through in the raid was fifty-two in all—nine in Kentucky, fourteen in Indiana, and twenty-nine in Ohio.