The Coolidge examiner., 1934-10-26

the sumner o. 1915. and rushed forth to defend
their bone land from being ravaEed By a party
o. rebel raiders"
You reciJed At school poem called Kentucky
Belle" by Constance Fenimore woolson with
those uuforEettable lines
Morgan. Morgan the Raider. and Morsans
terrible men.
With bowie knife and pistol are gaIloplng
up the glen"
Your childish eyes studied with fascinated IN.
teresi the Illustrations In some old book-prob.
abs Harpcr's Illustrated History of the Clvn
War and you saw for yourself hbw terrible Mor.
gan and his terrible men" locked
if you are "A Soufherncr. you probably think
Of Gen. John Hunt Morgan IS a combination of
Beau Sahreur and Prince Rupert. as The veri-
table symbol of The ante bcliam South In which
All the women were lovely and all the men were
modern knights crrant. riding forth 70 brave and
daring deeds on the backs q the finest horses
Ia the world
And. whether Northerner or Southerner n you
ever read ~The Little Shepherd of Kingdom
Come" by John Fox. Jr- you remember In u the
ghmpses % shat seemed 20 be- one of the most
dashinE. romantic figures In American history.
this same Gen John Hun, Morgan
Somewhere between those two extremes lies
The true picture Of this man and Il il tina, sort
which Howard Swiggett. whose book THE Rebel
Raider-A Biography OF John Hunt Morgan"
has just been published by the Bobhs Merrill
company has tried 20 paint
Both Northerners and southsrners as described
at the beginning Of this article will end much
In MF SwlgEstt's book 10 confirm their views
but no one except an extreme partisan can Seri.
ousiy quarrel with his conclusions about Morgan
nor doubt that this biography Is as honest as
fair and as accurate a portrait OF him as can be
painted from the evidence available after the
20 years which have elapsed since be died
In brie'. this Is the NE story OF John Hun,
Morgan. Born In Huntsville. Ala. June /. ls25.
he grew up IN Lexington. Ky. under the code of
the young galiants Of the Blue Grass arisiocracy
who
.. learned the arts Of riding. fencing. runnery
And bow 20 scale foriress-or n nunnery"
student at Trunsylvania college nj the are
% sixteen. be was tgFenty-one when he enlisted
IN the First Kentucky cavalry to serve In the
Mexican war lie was az Buena Vista but saw
little other fighting before be was mustered out
the next year and returned % Lexington 10 en-.
gage In the manufacture OF hemp and the gen.
eral merchandising business lett him bv his
grandfaiher. In isis be married Rebecca Gratz
Bruce, named FOR her aDcestress. Rebecca Cratz
whom Washington Irving described 10 Sir Wal
ter Scott and who was the model Tor the char
nctcr % ~Rebecca" In 'Ivanhoe-
In iS57 Morgan founded the Lexington Rifles
a militia company OF the young bloods OF that
town At the outbreak OF the War Between the
States. Kentucky a state tried 10 remain neu-
trail But not 50 her hlshsplrited young men
Some OF them Joined the Union army and others
the Confederate. Before the war was over she
was 10 know 10 the fullest the horrors OF a civil
war with members OF the same family arrayed
against each other and once more 10 become a
DARK and Bloody Ground
After the firing on Fort Sumter Morgan began
drilling his Lexington Rifles in the armory In
that city and all through the summer OF 1861
continued TO drill them under the suspicious
eyes OF Union troops stationed at Camp Dick
Robinson which had been established near Lex
ington- Then. one moonlight night In September.
some OF the Lexington Rifles. eludIng the Wig
ilanee OF Union watchers. slipped away down the
pike toward the Confederate camp OF Gen Simon
Bolivar Buckner at Bowling Green.
Almost as romantic figures as Morgan himself
were some OF the men who rode with him. There
were his FIVE brothers. the youngest. Key Nor.
gan named for their famous relative who wrote
~The Star Spanged Banner" There were @two
others who symbolized the two sides OF Morgan's
nature: Basil Duke, long his ond-In-command.
chlyalrous, generous. soldlerly and T. II.
Hines. a scholar and wit. charming TO his COM
rades dangerous TO his enemies insoent to his
csptors twenty-one when he Joined the army
n year older than John Wilkes Booth. TO whom
he bore SO extraordinary physical resemblance
that the vitality OF the story that Booth was
alive after % arose from people seeing Captain
Hines and thinking II was Booth. Hines was
perhaps the most recklessly competent man in
the Confederacy. and the only mind at work In
the couspiracies; his manner OF war was secret
service. plot. escape-the very antithesis OF
Duke" Then there was the English soldier Of
fortune ST. Leger Grenfell-"a man out OF
book by G. A. Henty rather than life, an incred-
Ible figure who had been Chasseur dAfriQue
and became inspector-general. at sixty years OF
age in Bragg's army"-and ~that Ariel OF the
brigade. Ellsworth. the telegraph operator whose
malicious military comedy was to cause havoc
In Northern headquarters. His face had the
trsgic mask OF the great comedian"
After Joining Buckner's army. Morgan and his
Lexington Rifles engaged in scouting and patrol
work In IL he began that career of swift sud-
den raids, gobbling up Yankee plckets and in
every way possible harasssag the Union lines
which laid the foundation for his reputation In
the North OF being a guerilla leader. II was
reputation which northern propagandists sedu-
touSly promoted. even though he was a regu-
iarly commissioned officer In. the Confederate
army. srst as colonel OF the Second Kentucky
cavalry and later a hrigadler-general. CON-
uandlnc brigade OF horsemen from that state