Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Volume 6: Volume 6

25. A Romance of Morgan's Rough Reider

25 A Romance of Morgan’s Rough Riders: The Raid, the Capture, and the Escape i the raid basil w. duke, brigadier general, c.s.a. In the summer of 1863 when at Tullahoma,Tennessee,General [Braxton] Bragg’s army was menaced by superior numbers in flank and rear,he determined to send a body of cavalry into Kentucky, which should operate upon Rosecrans’s communications between Nashville and Louisville, break the railroads, capture or threaten all the minor depots of supplies, intercept and defeat all detachments not too strong to be engaged,and keep the enemy so on the alert in his own rear that he would lose or neglect his opportunity to embarrass or endanger the march of the army when its retrograde movement began. He even hoped that a part of the hostile forces before him might be thus detained long enough to prevent their participation in the battle which he expected to fight when he had crossed the Tennessee. The officer whom he selected to accomplish this diversion was [Brigadier] General John H. Morgan, whose division of mounted riflemen was well fitted for the work in hand. Equal in courage, dash, and discipline to the other fine cavalry commands which General Bragg had at his disposal, it had passed a longer apprenticeship in expeditionary service than had any other. Its rank and file was of that mettle which finds its natural element in active and audacious enterprise, and was yet thrilled with the fire of youth; for there were few men in the division over twenty-five years of age. It was imbued with the spirit of its commander and confided in his skill and fortune; no endeavor was deemed impossible or even hazardous when he led. It was inured to constant, almost daily, combat with the enemy, of all arms and under every possible contingency . During its four years of service the Second Kentucky Cavalry,of which General Morgan was the first colonel, lost sixty-three commissioned officers killed and wounded; Company A of that regiment, of which Morgan was the first captain,losing during the war seventy-five men killed. It had on its muster-roll, from first to last, nearly two hundred and fifty men. The history of this company and regiment was scarcely exceptional in the command. Morgan was beyond all men adapted to independent command of this nature . His energy never flagged, and his invention was always equal to the emergency .Boldness and caution were united in all that he undertook.He had a most remarkable aptitude for promptly acquiring a knowledge of any country in A Romance of Morgan’s Rough Riders • 315 05.197-380_Cozz 12/2/03, 8:48 AM 315 316 • part 5: the war in 1863 which he was operating; and as he kept it, so to speak, “in his head,” he was enabled easily to extricate himself from difficulties. The celerity with which he marched, the promptness with which he attacked or eluded a foe, intensified the confidence of his followers, and kept his antagonists always in doubt and apprehension. In his conference with General Bragg,Morgan differed with his chief regarding the full effect of a raid that should not be extended beyond the Ohio. General Bragg desired it to be confined to Kentucky. He gave Morgan carte blanche to go where he pleased in that state and stay as long as he pleased; suggesting, among other things,that he capture Louisville.Morgan urged that while by such a raid he might so divert to himself the attention of [Brigadier General] Henry M. Judah and the cavalry of [Major General William S.] Rosecrans that they would not molest General Bragg’s retreat, he could do nothing, in this way, in behalf of the other equally important feature of the plan,the detention of troops that would otherwise strengthen Rosecrans in the decisive battle to be fought south of the Tennessee. He contended, moreover, that a raid into Indiana and Ohio, the more especially as important political elections were pending there, would cause troops to be withdrawn from Rosecrans and Burnside for the protection of those states. But General Bragg refused permission to cross the Ohio, and instructed Morgan to make the raid as originally designed. Brigadier General John H. Morgan (Century) 05.197-380_Cozz 12/2/03, 8:48 AM 316 Some weeks previous...