The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-06-16
WHEEIINC W V. FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 16, 1863

49, :
"Reminiscences Of the Rebellion.
fWritten for the Cincinnati Commercial, by one
attached to thu personal Headquarters of Gen
eraI r. E. Lee -.--- c
JOHN H. MORGAN. -r~
Inever had that peculiar knack of de-
scribing persons physiognomy, and the
pecuharities of personal appearance that
some people have, but my impressions OF
the great Kentucky raider were decided
j " pleasing He united to form. grace.
full and some six feet high, should
iudge, a winning manner. He had that
peculiar laugh ont of the eyes that is seen
occasionally, and in very slight degree
the manner that shows. and will impress
itself, of the difference between superb
or to his inferior in the military service.
General Morgan, aside from General
Lee, suppose, had more of the love and
confidence of his immediate command
than any other General in the confeder-
ate service. One reason, to be sure, Will
be found in the fact that the large major
ity of his command were composed OF
men from his own State, who came eX-
pressly to join him more than ''the cause"
but vet, it must be confessed he had a
large clement of bad material from other
Statesmen of the old Louisiana regi-
ments, who were the hardest cases i'll the
organizations they had previously served
in They would seize every opportunity
to desert and join Morgan, believing that
with him they could have license to DO
as they pleased But they were speedily
undeceived in this; yet, with command
nearly always scattered throughout a
considerable region of country, 1t was
impossible to always restrain them, espe-
cially when horse was in question; for,
when man became dismounted, by his
horse having played-out, killed, or, as
not unfrequently was the case, dpproprid-
ted by some of his comrades and sold,
with the alternative of quickly remount-
ing himself or transfer to the infantry,
his appreciation of property rights was
not allowed to influence his procedure i'll
getting another horse. You must know
that the cavalrymen in the confederate
army all furnished their own horses, for
which they were paid forty cents per day
hire, the government allowing forage, OF
course.
At this time, Morgan's command was
very mach scattered, the large majority
recuperating their stock after an ardu-
ous campaign About thirty miles from
McMinnville, at place called Liberty, in
DeKalb county, he had small force
watching the rear Of Rosecrans' army,
then stationed about Murfreesboro.-
About two miles from Liberty lived VIM.
B. Stokes, former member of the United
States Congress, but at that time the
Colonel of regiment of Federal cavalry,
raised in that immediate neighborhood.
Now the Federals used to play some
heavy jokes oil the aforesaid Confeds,-
There force was largely superior; no re-
Inducements nearer than thirty miles to
come to the assistance of the rebs. Con-
sequently, whenever they wanted a clean
change of clothing, they used to make a
dash into Liberty, drive the rebs ont, go
home, see their folks, and then retire,
when the little band that had retreated
up Snow Hill would go back to town,
and perhaps remain there for week,
when the same performance would be
repeated. ~ -
Such state Of things was unendura-
BILE, consequently the General (Morgan)
sent Colonel w. P c. Breckinridge,
cousin to John c. to their assistance,
with the 9th Kentucky Cavalry, and
many were the fights thereafter by the
respective scouting parties The lyings
in wait for foraging parties were fire.
quently successful, and numbers of small
trains of captured wagons were forward
ed on to McMinnville during that month.
General Morgan's personal treatment
of prisoners was uniformly kind, and, If
he was present. he would not permit
their robbery by his men. Being one OF
an escort of prisoners sent on to McMinn.
Vile, General Morgan and staff passed
US, coming from there, going on to Liber-
ty He stopped his horse and conversed
pleasantly with them, asking how they
had been treated by his men Several OF
them replied they had been robbed OF all
their money, others that they had had
their boots taken from them, &c. The
General got very angry, and asked them
if either of the parties were with the es-
cort On man being pointed out to
him as one of those that had robbed onr
of their comrades, the General ordered
the officer of the guard to turn him ovsI
to the provost guardimmediately on get.
ting to McMinnville He then ont OF
his own pocket, gave each of the robbed
party some money I do not mean to
insinuate for moment that the General
did not 90 in for the same thing, but
then it was on larger scale, and the
United States Government was generally
the sufferer What mean is, he would
not allow one of the common soldiers to
be robbed if he knew it, and when il was
brought to his attention, be invariably
reprobated it. and would punish the
guilty parties, if they could be pointed
out to him.
He was then on his road. preparatory
to the fight which took place at Milton
in few days. He had concentrated the
most of his force in and about Liberty
| rather think, had he known then what
the result of that fight would have been
he would not have been so eager to &C
more than half way to meet it. F.