Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1901-03-07
MORGAN'S RAIDERS.
THE FAMOUS ROUGH RIDING CAM
PAIGN OF THE CIVIL WAR

II Carried Panic and Confusion Iato
Ohio ard Indiana, but Resulted In
No BENEFIT whatever TO the Confed-
crate Cause.
Cavalry riding" said the major ais
txciting. but very exhausting business.
Long distance raids in an enemy's
country can be made only where there
are 4 good many horses. John Morgan
could never have made his raid
through Indiana and Ohio in 1868 IL
the counties raided had not been well
supplied with the best horses in the
west. When he started from the Cum
berland river, in east Tennessee, Nor
gan believed that he would sweep
everything before him and that, if
properly supported. he would capture
Cincinnati.
Morgan, with a well organized bri-
gade of cavalry 4,GGO strong. swept
northward from the Cumberland river
through kentucky to the Ohio river at
Brandenberg, 40 miles below Louis
vile. There he captured two steam
boats, crossed the river, swept through
Fouthcrn Indiana. galloped around Gin
cinnati, not more than ten miles from
the city, and then moved eastward,
expecting to cross the Ohio river at
Burlington, 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 con-
fusion into Ohio and Indiana, but in
results it was of no benefit whatever
to the Confederate cause. Morgan be-
lieved that there would be an uprising
in the Confederate interest in Ken
lucky. There was not. He believed
that the peace Democrats in Ohio
would give him at least secret support,
but when his men stole the horses Of
the peace Democrats the latter joined
the ranks of Morgan's pursuers, and
before the raid was half over the
whole state was aroused, and men
who had taken no interest in the war
previous to that time shouldered their
squirrel rifles to fight the raiders who
were stealing tkeir horses and carry
ing the horrors of war to their very
doors.
'"There was hard riding all the time
for Morgan's men. They left behind
them a wreckage of broken down
horses. They kept ahead of their I'm
ion pursuers simply because they stole
horses right and left and remounted
the men, but they were finally captur-
ed, and that fall Ohio gave the war
party The largest majority in the his
tory of the state up to that time. In
fact, the Morgan raid. by carrying the
war into the peaceful districts of In
diana and Ohio, provoked n furious
feeling Of resentment, which inf1u-
enced people for 20 years.
"The comedy Of the raid was fur
nished by the people of the districts
wholly unused to war, wholly unpre-
pared for it and with exaggerated
ideas OF the ferocity Of Morgan's men.
For two weeks it was only necessary
for some mischievous boy to shout,
Morgan is comingp in any village In
central or southern Ohio to create
panic. know that many of the raiders
after Morgan got no rest night or day,
slept in the saddle, and not a few of
them fell off their horses in sleep. At
the end of the raid they were as ex-
hausted as Morgan's men, but with
a more difficult task to perform they
never received half the praise given
to the raiders.
81 remember" continued the major,
zone case In which woman stabbed
her carriage horses in the parlor for
fxx-O 10 n Thorn AP Nor.
gan's hands. 7 saw Morgan's men ride
by that house and saw some of them
stop to listen at the unusual sound of
horses feet on a carpeted floor, but the
parlor horses were not disturbed. Some
Of our neighbors drove their horses,
cattle and sheep so miles into the in
terror and were away from home
week. Morgan's men looted right and
left, and some OF them had bolts of
calico strapped to their saddles when
they were captured.
Morgan, it must be remembered,
made his whole raid with artillery and
n wagon train, but he was not In Ohio
to fight, and he demonstrated at once
the ease with which peaceful district
may be invaded by a mobile column
and at the same time the peril involv-
ed in such venture. In few days
$4,000 militamen were In the field
against him. AT first he played with
these green soldiers. but at last they
hung on his tanks. eager for fight as
bulldogs. In the last days Hobson's
men, who had followed Morgan for
hundreds Of miles through three states,
closed in on their old enemies with a
gleefulness that exceeded anything of
the kind ever saw in the army. and
Judah's men. closing in on the other
side. settled the fate of the raiders.
"Morgan's men knew by the maneu
vering and the firing when they were
faced by trained soldiers, and the first
charge of the Union cavalry bad in 1t
the impetus Of delayed vengeance. The
Unionists who rode IN that charge had
pld scores 10 settle, and Morgan's tired
veterans were overwhelmed. After
Morgan had escaped from the peniten-
tiary at Columbus and had reorganiZed
his command and was again raiding
Kentucky hundreds of Union soldiers
on their way home for discharge left
their trains and joined In the pursuit
simply to get n crack at the old raider,
and Morgan knew when their rifles
enokp that no was I'm apaInSt the real