New-York tribune., 1901-01-20
WITH MORGAN'S RAIDERS
THE FAMOUS ROUGH RIDING CAMPAIGN
OF THE CIVIL WAR
From The Chicago Inter-Ocean.

From The Chicago Inter Ocean
Cavalry riding" said the Major, lis exciting,
nut very exhausting business. Long distance
raids in an enemy's country be made only
Where there are a good many horses. John
Morgan could never have made his raid through
indiana and Ohio in lS,i3 if the counties raided
mad not been we'll supplied with the best horses
i'm the West. When ne started from the Cumber-
land River. in East Tennessee. Morgan believed
that he would sweep everything before him. and
Cinnati.
Morgan, with a well organized brigade Of
cavalry four thousand strong. swept northward
from the Cumberland River through Kentucky
10 the ohio River at Brandenberg, forty miles
below Louisville. There he captured two steam
boats crossed the river, swept through Southern
Indiana. SallOped around Cincinnati not more
than ten miles from the city and then moved
eastward. expecting to cross the Ohio River at
huntington. but was driven back made another
attempt at Wellsville. but was finally captured
at New Lisbon.
This was the most remarkable raid of the
war. 1t carried panic and confusion into Ohio
and Indiana, but in results it was of no benefit
whatever to the Confederate cause Morgan
believed there would be uprising in the Con-
federate interest in Kentucky. There was not
He believed that the COpperheads in Ohio would
give him at least secret support, but when his
men stole the horses of the Copperheads or the
peace Democrats the latter Joined the ranks of
Morgan's pursuers. and before the raid was half
over the whole state aroused, and men who
had taken no interest i'm the war previous to
that time shouidered their squirrel rifles to fight
the raiders VINO were stealing their horses and
carrying the horrors of to their very doors.
There was hard riding all the time for Nor
gan'S men. They left behind them a wreckage
of broken down horses. They kept ahead of
their Union pursuers simply because they stole
horses right and left and remounted the men,
but they were finally captured. and that fall
Ohio gave the war party the largest majority
in the history Of the State up to that time. In
fact the Morgan raid by carrying the war into
the peaceful districts OF Indiana and Ohio. pro-
voked furious feeling of resentment, which
influenced people for twenty years.
The comedy of the raid furnished by the
h. m
wholly unprepared for 1T. and with exaggerated
ideas Of the ferocity of Morgan's men. For
two weeks it only necessary for some mis-
chievous boy 10 shout Morgan is comingr in
any village in Central or Southern Ohio to
ate a panic l know that many of the riders
after Morgan got no rest night or day, slept in
the saddle. and not few of them fell off their
horses in sleep. At the end of the raid they
were as exhausted as MOrgan's men. but with
a more difficult task to perform they never -
CcIved half the praise given to the raiders.
Il remember" continued the Major case
in which a woman stabbed her carriage horses in
the parlor for two days to keep them out of
Morgans hands. | saw MOrgan's men ride by
that house. and saw some of them stop 70
listen AT the unusual sound of horses feet
"A carpct"d floor. but the parlOr horses were not
disturbed Some Of our neiShbors drove their
horses, cattle ami sheep thirty miles into the
Interior. and were away from home week.
Morgans men looted right and left. and some
of them had bolts of calico strapped to their
saddles when they were captured.
Morgan, II must be remembered. made mis-
Uut D. was not in Ohio to fight. and he demon
Strated at once the ease with which a peaceful
district may be invaded by a mobile column
and ~ the same time the peril involved in such
a venture. In few days nifty thousand militia
men We're in the field against him. Al first he
played with these green soldiers. hut at last
they hung on his Hanks. eager for fight a bull
dogs. In the last days HObSon's men. who hal
followed Morgan for hundreds of miles through
three states closed in on their old enemies with
elecfulncss that exceeded anything of the
kind ever in the Army. and Judahs men,
closing in on the other side. settled the fate of
the raiders.
''Morgan's men knew by the manruvring and
the firing when they We're faced by trained
soldiers. and the first charge of the Union
airy had in il the impetus of delayed
ScanCc- The UnionistS " no rode in that charge
had old scores to settle and MOrgan's tired vet
Grams Were oVerWh hclnlcd. After Morgan had
escaped from the pcnitcntiary at Columbus and
had rcOrEanZCd his command and was again
Iaiiing Kentucky. hundreds of Union soldiers
their way home for discharge left their
trains and Joined in tine pursuit simply to- get u
crack at the old raider, and Morgan knew when
their rifles spoke that he up against tho
real thing
HOGNiNiY.