Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1901-11-21

myself. Finally Lexington aske,
me where my assistant was? ? Don
know ] replied. He then asked
Have you seen him today p
answered, No Well, from tina
moment on ] could do no telegraph
ing in the beautiful city Of George
town, a fact that CALLED my profess
ional dignity. As ameans of getting
even with the fraternity, who evi
IDENTIFY bad detected me, sent ou,
an order to the operators on the line
word for word, as follows:
General Order No. /.
Headquarters Telegraph Dept.
Kentucky, C. s. A.
Georgetown, KY, July 10, 1862.
When an operator is positively
informed that the enemy is ismarching
on his station, he will Immediately
proceed to destroy the telegraph
instruments and all material in bis
charge. Such instances of carless-
ness as exhibited on the part of the
operators at Lebanon, Midway, and
Georgetown will be severely dealt
with.
" G. A. ELLSWORTH,
General Military Supt. C. S.
Telegraph.
Before sending this despatch
had raked the Georgetown instru-
ments out from under bed in lit
tie room adjoining the station. At
Cynthiana and Paris, / found the
wires out Of order, and could do
nothing. At Crab Orchard, where
there was no telegraph Office, / put
my pocket magnet on, and at once
took off a message from General
Boyle, Louisville, to Colonel Wool
ford, Danville. Boyle said to Wool
ford:
Pursue Morgan. He is Mt Crab
Orchard, going to Somerset.
No sooner had the Danvilleoper-
ator recipted for this than the oper-
ator at Lebanon made suggestion
for the repeating Office at Leb mon
Junction to send over the line. Said
he:
Would il not be well for Dan
vile and Offices below here to put on
their ground wires when they re-
ceive or send important messages,
as Ellsworth, Morgan's operator,
may be on the line 2
The idea was agreed to, but Nor
gan had no further use for the stolen
through messages. We made our
last halt that evening at Somerset.
soon got the Office in workingorder,
and the operator at Stanford called
He asked If there were any signs of
Morgan at Somerset and answered.
signing the name Somerset, that
there were no signs of him. The
operators then gave me a word of
caution about Morgan, and took the
chance to ask when Colonel Wool
ford's force would be at Crab
Orchard, as ordered by General
Boyle in the message / had taken
of at Crab Orchard that morning.
He said that Woolford had wired TO
Boyle that his force was not able to
cope with Morgan. Morgan then
prepared, and | sent out messages
purporting to come from General
Boyle, countermanding all orders
given for our pursuit.
AS we were about closing our
operations to start on a long ride
homeward for Tennessee, ] c0nclud-
ed to take a night s rest, and told
the Stanford operator that was 90
ing to bed, but had arranged with
the pickets to wake me in case Nor
gan came in. Next morning / was
out early, and informed the Stanford
man that Morgan had not yet ap-
peared. Meanwhile everything in
the town belonging to the United
States Government was going up in
smoke, fired by the torches Of our
band. As parting salute TO his
enemy, who hadn't had sight of him
on all this bold raid, and greeting
to couple of old personal friends,
Morgan dictated the last messages
had the pleasure of sending over
Northern wires to Northern ears. /
give them in full.
Somerset, KY, July 22, 1862.
/" George ID. Prentice, Louisville,
Kentucky:
Good morning, George ID. /
am quietly watching the complete
destruction of all of Uncle Sans
property in this little burg. lex
ceedingly regret that it is the last
that comes under my supervision ON
this route. expect in a short time
to pay you a visit, and wish toknow
il you will be at home. All well in
Dixie. J. III. MORGAN.
Somerset, KY, July %, 1862.
Hon. George Dunlap, VI. c., WASH
ington, ID. c.:
Just completed my tour through
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