Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1901-03-14
MORGEN'S RAIDERS.
THE FAMOUS ROUGH RIOIEG CAM
PAlGN OF THE CIVIL WAR.

crate Cause.
Cavalry riding" said the major, "is
exciting, but very exhausting business.
lg distance raids in an enemy's
CO ltry can be made only where there
~ good many horses. John Morgan
coulI 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 1000 strong, swept
nOrthward from the Cumberland river
through Kentucky to the Ohio river at
Brandeuberg, 40 miles below Louis
vile. There he captured two steam
boats, crossed the river, swept through
southern 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 their 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 a furious
feeling of resentment, which influ-
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 comingn In any village in
central or southern Ohio to create q
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 n woman stabbed
! her carriage horses in the parlor for
| two days to keep them out of Nor
| gan's hands. | saw Morgan's men ride
| 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 80 miles into the in
terror and were away from home n
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
q wagon train, but he was not in Ohio
| to fight, and he demonstrated at once
| the ease with which a peaceful district
may he invaded by a mobile column
and at the same time the peril involv-
| ed in such Il venture. In a few days
| $4,000 militiamen were in the field
against him. At first he played with
| these green soldiers, but at last they
| hung on his flankS, 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 q
| 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-
yering and the firing when they were
faced by trained soldiers, and the first
charge of the Union cavalry had in II
the impetus of delayed vengeance. The
| Unionists who rode in that charge had
old scores TO settle, and Morgan's tired
veterans were overwhelmed. After
Morgan had escaped from the peniten'
tiary at Columbus and had reorSaniZed
his command and was again raiding
Kentucky hua1reds of Union soldiers
on their way home for discharge left
their trains and joined in the pursuit
simply to get a crack at the old raider
and Morgan knew when their rifles
spoke that lie was up against the real
ching"
A Years Railroad building.
There were 4,S0441 miles of new
railroad completed in the United State
the past year. according to the pre-
liminary estimates Of The Railroad
Gazette The returns cover 2SG com
panies in 43 states and territories. Th
comparison with the returns of 1S9
is favorable, 2S4 companies having
built 4,5G9la miles that year, that hav
ing been the largest new building sine
1891 and 1892.
Among the companies building th
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy leads
with 213 miles in four states and terri
tories The Chicago, Milwaukee an
st. Paul built 173 miles; the Chicago
Rock Island and Pacific, 1G9 miles; th