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7 The Whiskey Was Still Abundant
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97 7 THE WHISKEY WAS STILL ABUNDANT While General Bragg’s army slowly withdrew from Kentucky by way of Cumberland Gap to Knoxville and then to Murfreesboro, and General Buell’s army marched west of Bragg on direct routes to Nashville, John Hunt Morgan set out for Tennessee on roads west of Buell’s line of march. Returning to Tennessee was no easy matter. Morgan and his command, Duke’s Second Kentucky Cavalry (C.S.A.), Breckinridge’s Battalion, Gano’s Battalion , and Captain C. C. Corbett’s section of mountain howitzers, rode from Lexington to Versailles, crossed the Kentucky River at Shryock’s Ferry, and rested near Lawrenceburg on October 18. At Lawrenceburg, Morgan’s men discovered the presence of two Union infantry divisions—Brigadier Generals Joshua H. Sill’s and Ebenezer Dumont’s of Major General Alexander McDowell McCook’s Corps—operating out of Frankfort, Kentucky. Morgan quickly put his command on the road toward Bardstown. They were in the saddle day and night, and rode around Bardstown to avoid the Federal garrison there. Reaching Elizabethtown , they tore up the Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks there and a few of the trestles near Muldraugh, Kentucky. They then continued south to Leitchfield, Kentucky. At Leitchfield, Lieutenant John M. Porter and his friend Captain Thomas Hines, along with Company E of Breckinridge’s Battalion, were ONE OF MORGAN’S MEN 98 sent on their first detached mission, toward Woodbury in Porter’s and Hines’s home county of Butler. It was Porter’s first taste of what would become Morgan’s practice of detaching elements of his command to their home counties for purposes of scouting, recruiting, and damaging Federal logistical support systems, such as bridges, railroad rolling stock, tracks, dams, and river transportation facilities. Porter briefly reunited with his family and neighbors in Butler County while at the same time trying to evade the numerous Federal occupation forces and elements of Buell’s army then racing toward Nashville. Reunited with Morgan’s full command at Morgantown, Porter finally left Kentucky in a driving snowstorm by passing through Greenville and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and proceeding to Springfield and Gallatin, Tennessee . While at Gallatin, Morgan cooperated with Major General John C. Breckinridge’s division in an attack on Nashville, then held by Federal forces under the command of Brigadier General James S. Negley. The attack was broken off after it became clear to Breckinridge that the defenses of Nashville were too strong. By the time Morgan returned to Gallatin, he learned that Buell’s army was entering Nashville. Morgan moved his command to Lebanon, Tennessee, and then directed Breckinridge’s Battalion to Fayetteville, Tennessee, on the Alabama state line, in order that the men might get some needed rest and refit. We were in a dangerous situation, being on all sides surrounded by large bodies of Federal cavalry. We moved rapidly and went into camp after dark on the Kentucky River, having crossed it somewhere in the vicinity of Lawrenceburg. I can’t tell where.1 About two o’clock in the morning, when all except the pickets were in profound sleep, the pursuing enemy began throwing shells into our camp from the hills and cliffs on the opposite side of the river. This at once aroused us, and the bugle was sounded for mounting. There was mounting in hot haste. We were roused from our rude beds by the falling and screaming shells, and, in a short time, were prepared [18.209.63.120] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:33 GMT) THE WHISKEY WAS STILL ABUNDANT 99 either for fighting or marching. There was no time to waste in fighting; our only safety lay in our marching and evading the many enemy commands, each larger than our own, which were advancing on us from every direction with the confident expectation of hedging Morgan and forcing a surrender.2 The command was therefore formed in line and began a march that frosty morning before day that was one of the most rapid and remarkable on record. We were pressed on our rear by eight thousand well-mounted men. Large bodies were also coming towards us from both sides, while another large force was endeavoring to intercept our march and delay us till all their forces should unite. Colonel Morgan comprehended everything in a moment and marched his command forward to evade and escape the avalanche prepared for him. For hour after hour the line A...