John Hunt Morgan John Hunt Morgan ( June 1 , 1825 – September 4 , 1864 ) was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American Civil War . Morgan is best known for Morgan ' s Raid when , in 1863 , he and his men rode over 1 , 000 miles covering a region from Tennessee , up through Kentucky , into Indiana and on to southern Ohio . This would be the farthest north any uniformed Confederate troops penetrated during the war . Early life and career . John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville , Alabama , the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta ( Hunt ) Morgan . He was an uncle of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan and a maternal grandson of John Wesley Hunt , an early founder of Lexington , Kentucky , and one of the first millionaire s west of the Allegheny Mountains . He was also the brother - in - law of A . P . Hill and of Basil W . Duke . Morgan ' s paternal grandfather Luther Morgan had settled in Huntsville , but a downturn in the cotton economy forced him to mortgage his holdings . His father , Calvin Morgan , lost his Huntsville home in 1831 when he was unable to pay the property taxes following the failure of his pharmacy . The family then moved to Lexington , where he would manage one of his father - in - law ' s sprawling farms . Morgan grew up on the farm outside of Lexington and attended Transylvania College for two years , but was suspended in 1844 for duel ing with a fraternity brother . In 1846 , Morgan joined the Fraternal Order of Freemasons , at Daviess Lodge # 22 , Lexington , Kentucky . Morgan desired a military career , but the small size of the US military severely limited opportunities for officer ' s commissions . In 1846 Morgan enlisted with his brother Calvin and uncle Alexander in the U . S . Army as a cavalry private during the Mexican - American War . He was elected second lieutenant and was promoted to first lieutenant before arriving in Mexico , where he saw combat in the Battle of Buena Vista . On his return to Kentucky , he became a hemp manufacturer and in 1848 , he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce , the 18 - year - old sister of one of his business partners . Morgan also hired out his slaves and occasionally sold them . After the death of John Wesley Hunt in 1849 , his fortunes greatly improved as his mother , Henrietta , began financing his business ventures . In 1853 , his wife delivered a stillborn son . She contracted septic thrombophlebitis , popularly known as " milk leg " — an infection of a blood clot in a vein , which eventually led to an amputation . They became increasingly emotionally distant from one another . Known as a gambler and womanizer , Morgan was also known for his generosity . Morgan remained interested in the military . He raised a militia artillery company in 1852 , but it was disbanded by the state legislature two years later . In 1857 , with the rise of sectional tensions , Morgan raised an independent infantry company known as the " Lexington Rifles , " and spent much of his free time drilling his men . Civil War service . Like most Kentuckians , Morgan did not initially support secession . Immediately after Lincoln ' s election in November 1860 , he wrote to his brother , Thomas Hunt Morgan , then a student at Kenyon College in northern Ohio , " Our State will not I hope secede [ . I ] have no doubt but Lincoln will make a good President at least we ought to give him a fair trial & then if he commits some overt act all the South will be a unit . " By the following spring , Tom Morgan ( who also had opposed Kentucky ' s secession ) had transferred home to the Kentucky Military Institute and there began to support the Confederacy . Just before the Fourth of July , by way of a steamer from Louisville , he quietly left for Camp Boone , just across the Tennessee border , to enlist in the Kentucky State Guard . John stayed at home in Lexington to tend to his troubled business and his ailing wife . Becky Morgan finally died on July 21 , 1861 . In September , Captain Morgan and his militia company went to Tennessee and joined the Confederate States Army . Morgan soon raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment and became its colonel on April 4 , 1862 . Morgan and his cavalrymen fought at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862 , and he soon became a symbol to secessionists in their hopes for obtaining Kentucky for the Confederacy . A Louisiana writer , Robert D . Patrick , compared Morgan to Francis Marion and wrote that " a few thousands of such men as his would regain us Kentucky and Tennessee . " In his first Kentucky raid , Morgan left Knoxville on July 4 , 1862 , with almost 900 men and in three weeks swept through Kentucky , deep in the rear of Major General Don Carlos Buell ' s army . He reported the capture of 1 , 200 Federal soldiers , whom he paroled , acquired several hundred horses , and destroyed massive quantities of supplies . He unnerved Kentucky ' s Union military government , and President Abraham Lincoln received so many frantic appeals for help that he complained that " they are having a stampede in Kentucky . " Historian Kenneth W . Noe wrote that Morgan ' s feat " in many ways surpassed J . E . B . Stuart ' s celebrated ' Ride around McClellan ' and the Army of the Potomac the previous spring . " The success of Morgan ' s raid was one of the key reasons that the Confederate Heartland Offensive of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith was launched later that fall , assuming that tens of thousands of Kentuckians would enlist in the Confederate Army if they invaded the state . Morgan was promoted to brigadier general ( his highest rank ) on December 11 , 1862 , though the Promotion Orders were not signed by President Davis until December 14 , 1862 . He received the thanks of the Confederate Congress on May 1 , 1863 , for his raids on the supply lines of Union Major General William S . Rosecrans in December and January , most notably his victory at the Battle of Hartsville on December 7 . On December 14 , Morgan married Martha " Mattie " Ready , the daughter of Tennessee United States Representative Charles Ready and a cousin of William T . Haskell , another former U . S . representative from Tennessee . Morgan ' s Raid . Hoping to divert Union troops and resources in conjunction with the twin Confederate operations of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863 , Morgan set off on the campaign that would become known as " Morgan ' s Raid " . Morgan crossed the Ohio River , and raided across southern Indiana and Ohio . At Corydon , Indiana , the raiders met 450 local Home Guard in a battle that resulted in eleven Confederates killed and five Home Guard killed . In July , at Versailles , IN , while soldiers raided nearby militia and looted county and city treasuries , the jewels of the local masonic lodge were stolen . When Morgan , a Freemason , learned of the theft he recovered the jewels and returned them to the lodge the following day . After several more skirmishes , during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers , Morgan ' s raid almost ended on July 19 , 1863 , at Buffington Island , Ohio , when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia . Intercepted by Union gunboats , less than 200 of his men succeeded in crossing . Most of Morgan ' s men captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas Prisoner of War camp in Chicago , which had a very high death rate . On July 26 , near Salineville , Ohio ( actually closer to New Lisbon - now just called Lisbon ) , Morgan and his exhausted , hungry and saddlesore soldiers were finally forced to surrender . On November 27 , Morgan and six of his officers , most notably Thomas Hines , escaped from their cells in the Ohio Penitentiary by digging a tunnel from Hines ' cell into the inner yard and then ascending a wall with a rope made from bunk coverlets and a bent poker iron . Morgan and three of his officers , shortly after midnight , boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning . Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot , and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River . Through the assistance of sympathizers , they eventually made it to safety in the South . Coincidentally , the same day Morgan escaped , his wife gave birth to a daughter , who died shortly afterwards before Morgan returned home . Though Morgan ' s Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press and caused the Union leadership considerable concern , it is now regarded as little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war . Furthermore , it was done in direct violation of his orders from General Braxton Bragg not to cross the river . Despite the raiders ' best efforts , Union forces had amassed nearly 110 , 000 militia in Illinois , Indiana and Ohio ; dozens of United States Navy gunboat s along the Ohio ; and strong Federal cavalry forces , which doomed the raid from the beginning . The cost of the raid to the Federals was extensive , with claims for compensation still being filed against the U . S . government well into the early 20th century . However , the Confederacy ' s loss of Morgan ' s light cavalry far outweighed the benefits . Late career and death . After his return from Ohio , Morgan was never again trusted by General Bragg . On August 22 , 1864 , Morgan was placed in command of the Trans - Allegheny Department , embracing at the time the Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia . However , the men he was assigned were in no way comparable to those he had lost . Morgan once again began raiding into Kentucky , but his men lacked discipline and he was either not willing or not able to control them , leading to open pillaging along with high casualties . By now , Confederate authorities were quietly investigating Morgan for charges of criminal banditry , likely leading to his removal from command . He began to organize a raid aimed at Knoxville , Tennessee . On September 4 , 1864 , he was surprised by a Union attack and was shot in the back and killed by Union cavalrymen while attempting to escape during a raid on Greeneville , Tennessee . Morgan was buried in Lexington Cemetery . The burial was shortly before the birth of his second child , another daughter . Legacy . Morgan High School in McConnelsville , Ohio , near the site where Morgan crossed the Muskingum River , named their mascot the Raiders in honor of Morgan ' s campaign into southeast Ohio . South Ripley High School in Versailles Indiana , the location of a skrmish with Morgan ' s Raiders , named their mascot the Raiders in honor of his campaign across Indiana . Hart County High School , in Munfordville , Kentucky , the site of the Battle for the Bridge , named their mascot the Raiders , in honor of Morgan ' s men . Also , a large mural in the town depicts Morgan . Trimble County High School , in Bedford , Kentucky , named their mascot the Raiders , in honor of Morgan ' s men . The John Hunt Morgan Memorial statue in Lexington is a tribute to him . The Hunt - Morgan House , once his home , is a contributing property in a historic district in Lexington . The John Hunt Morgan Bridge on East Main Street / U . S . Route 11 in Abingdon , Virginia is named after him . The General Morgan Inn , located at the spot he was killed in Greeneville , Tennessee , is named after him . A Kentucky Army National Guard Field Artillery battalion , the 1 / 623rd with headquarters in Glasgow , are known as Morgan ' s Men . A Merino ram at Greenfield Village is named in his likeness . A statue was erected in Pomeroy ( Meigs Co . ) Ohio for the effect he had on the town and its people .