One of Morgan's Men: Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry

Preface

9 PREFACE I propose to place upon record a narrative of events, commencing during the year 1861, continuing through the sanguinary years of 1861–1865, embracing the period of the War for Southern Independence, and closing with the final surrender of the Confederate Armies to the forces of the United States. I propose to present how, in a few brief months, the whole country was roused to arms; how, in a short time, the citizens of every hill and valley, every plain and mountain, every city and town in Kentucky, from the Big Sandy to the mouth of the Tennessee River, from Kentucky’s mountain gaps to her lowlands, were driven to almost frantic excitement by the near approach to her borders of hostile armies. I propose to present how her citizens, deluded by the cry of “neutrality,” deemed that they were secure from the Confederate army upon the one side and from the armies of the United States upon the other, until, bound too securely, they found her borders trod at almost the same moment by troops in Southern and Northern uniforms, in whose bosoms rankled the bitterest hate towards each other. And, while I shall give an account of many things which shall be personal to myself and concerning those who were and are still dear to me by reason of an association of four long and eventful years, I trust that the charge of egotism will not be made or inferred from the manner in which I write, and from the frequent use of the first person. To make this ONE OF MORGAN’S MEN 10 record what I desire it to be necessitates the style of composition I adopt. Julius Caesar, in giving to his countrymen— and through them to the world and to us—his excellent and incomparable history of the Gallic Wars speaks always of himself in the third person and thus avoids any idea of egotism. If that course is not adopted here it is because it cannot be done so as to render this record all that I wish it to be. It should be the desire of every one to preserve for his family everything of importance which has occurred and which is occurring. I have often regretted that I know so little of the family, or, I should rather say, of the ancestry whose name I bear. Farther back than the war of the Revolution in 1776, my knowledge is meager and vague indeed. That some of my ancestors, not more than one generation removed, were participants in that war is undoubtedly true. But, beyond this, the information in my possession is limited, except that they were of Scotch-Irish descent and emigrated at an early day to the Colony of Virginia, and settled in the vicinity of the Staunton River and Appomattox River. This want of information exists because there has been no record kept, so far as I know, by any member of a very numerous and now widely dispersed family. To supply this defect, so far as I can, is one motive to this attempt. If those who come after me are in any wise gratified with this record, or if they are by this means made familiar with the stirring events which occurred while I served in the Confederate States Army, and if they take an interest in reading what I have here written, all my desires will be satisfied. I dedicate these pages to those whom I love tenderly and of whom I am proud, feeling confident that their charity as a mantle will cover all its defects, and that their interest in it will prompt them to preserve it and hand it down as an heirloom , as it were, to those who come after them. John M. Porter ...