Morgan's Raid (also the Calico Raid or Great Raid of 1863) was a diversionary incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Union states of Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11 to July 26, 1863. It is named for the commander of the Confederate troops, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. Although it caused temporary alarm in the North, the raid failed.
The raid covered more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km), beginning in Tennessee and ending in northern Ohio. It coincided with the Vicksburg and Gettysburg campaigns. It was meant to draw U.S. troops away from those fronts by frightening the North into demanding its troops return home. Despite his initial successes, Morgan failed to recross the Ohio River and eventually surrendered what remained of his command in northeastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. Morgan and other senior officers were held in the Ohio Penitentiary, but they tunneled their way out and took a train to Cincinnati, where they crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky.
Tennessee and Kentucky
General Morgan and his 2,460 handpicked Confederate cavalrymen, along with four artillery pieces, departed from Sparta, Tennessee, on June 11, 1863. The expedition intended to divert the attention of the Union Army of the Ohio from Confederate forces in the state and possibly stir up pro-Confederate sentiments in the North. General Braxton Bragg, the regional Confederate commander, intended Morgan's cavalrymen to distract U.S. forces by entering Kentucky. Morgan, however, confided to some of his officers that he had long desired to invade Indiana and Ohio to bring the terror of war to the Union. Bragg had given him carte blanche to ride throughout Tennessee and Kentucky, but ordered him to under no circumstances cross the Ohio River. On June 23, the Federal Army of the Cumberland began its operations against General Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee in what became known as the Tullahoma Campaign, and Morgan decided it was time to move northward into Kentucky.
On July 2, hoping to disrupt Union communication lines, Morgan rode into Kentucky, where sympathetic citizens openly welcomed his cavalrymen. Crossing the rain-swollen Cumberland River at Burkesville, Morgan's division advanced to the Green River, where it was deflected by half of a Union regiment (the 25th Michigan Infantry Regiment) at the Battle of Tebbs Bend on July 4. Morgan surprised and captured the garrison at Lebanon. He trapped 400 men from the 20th Kentucky in the town's railroad depot, but the well-fortified building provided considerable protection. In a six-hour fight, Federal troops killed Morgan's youngest brother, Thomas, during the Confederate's final charge. Morgan finally captured and then paroled the U.S. troops.
A grieving Morgan continued northward to Louisville, riding through Springfield, Bardstown, and Garnettsville. Along the way, the Confederates endured several smaller skirmishes with Union troops and Kentucky home guard units. However, he turned his remaining men to the northwest and headed for the Ohio River just south of the city.
At Springfield, Morgan sent a detachment north and east of Louisville, intending to confuse Union forces about where Morgan was heading. Before rejoining Morgan, this detachment crossed the Ohio River at Twelve Mile Island and was captured near New Pekin, Indiana. To further mislead the U.S. soldiers of his objectives, Morgan had his telegrapher, "Lightning" Ellsworth, tap telegraph lines and, pretending to be a Union telegrapher, send several messages giving different headings for the raiders and false reports of the size of Morgan's force—sometimes reporting it as high as 7,000 men. Ellsworth did this throughout the journey, especially in Indiana.
Indiana
Morgan had sent spy Thomas Hines and a party of 62 Confederates, posing as a Union patrol, on a secret mission into Indiana in June to determine if the local Copperheads would support or join Morgan's impending raid. After visiting the local Copperhead leader, Dr. William A. Bowles, Hines learned that no desired support would be forthcoming. He and his scouts were soon identified as actually being Confederates, and, in a minor skirmish near Leavenworth, Indiana, Hines had to abandon his men as he swam across the Ohio River under gunfire. He wandered around Kentucky for a week seeking information on Morgan's whereabouts.
By now reduced to 1,800 men, Morgan's main column had arrived on the morning of July 8 at Brandenburg, Kentucky, a small town along the Ohio River, where Hines rejoined them. Here, the raiders seized two steamboats, the John B. McCombs and the Alice Dean. Morgan, against Bragg's strict orders, transported his command across the river to Indiana, landing just east of Mauckport. A small company of Indiana home guards contested the crossing with an artillery piece, as did a riverboat carrying a six-pounder. However, the gunboat soon withdrew, and Morgan's forces safely crossed the river into Indiana that night. After burning the Alice Dean and sending the John B. McCombs downriver with instructions not to pursue him, Morgan headed away from the river.
Governor Oliver P. Morton worked feverishly to organize Indiana's defense, calling for men to take up arms and form militia companies. Thousands responded and organized themselves into companies and regiments. Col. Lewis Jordan took command of the 450 members of the Harrison County Home Guard (Sixth Regiment, Indiana Legion), consisting of poorly trained civilians with a motley collection of arms. His goal was to delay Morgan long enough for Union reinforcements to arrive.
Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Department of the Ohio with headquarters in Cincinnati, quickly organized local Federal troops and home militia to cut off Morgan's routes back to the Confederacy. Morgan headed northward on Mauckport Road with another brother, Colonel Richard Morgan, leading the forward elements. On July 9, one mile (1.6 km) south of Corydon, Indiana, the county seat of Harrison County, his advance guard encountered Jordan's small force, drawn in a battle line behind a hastily thrown up barricade of logs. The colonel attacked, and in a short but spirited battle of less than an hour, he simultaneously outflanked both Union wings, completely routing the hapless militia. Accounts vary as to the number of casualties that resulted from the Battle of Corydon, but one source estimates that 4 of Jordan's men were killed, 10–12 were wounded, and 355 were captured. Morgan counted 11 dead and 40 wounded raiders. Among the dead Federals was the civilian toll keeper who perished near his tollgate. Raiders killed a Lutheran minister, Reverend Peter Glenn, on his farm, 4 miles (6 km) from the battlefield, and stole horses from several other farmers.
General Morgan led his division into Corydon, where he paroled his demoralized prisoners and ransomed the town for cash and supplies. Morgan's soldiers then traveled east and reached Vienna on July 10, where they burned a railroad bridge and depot and tapped a telegraph line. After spending the night in Lexington, they headed to the northeast, terrorizing the small towns along the way, including Vernon, Dupont, New Pekin, Salem, and Versailles, with his troops facing a little bit of resistance from Indiana Home Guard troops and the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters Regiment at Vernon.
On July 11, while crossing Blue River near New Pekin, Confederate Capt. William J. Davis and some of his men were captured by the 73rd Indiana Infantry and a detachment of the 5th U.S. Regulars. Davis and several other soldiers were taken to New Albany and secured in the county jail. This is known locally as the Battle of Oak Ridge.
On the night of July 11, Morgan camped near the town of Dupont, Indiana. Subsequently, on July 12, his men burned the town's storehouse. They stole 2,000 hams before continuing east. By the next day, such a large amount of meat in the open air had attracted flies, and the soldiers began discarding hams along the side of the road, leaving a trail for Indiana militia troops to follow as they chased Morgan and his men out of the state.
Morgan then headed for Salem, immediately occupying the town and placing guards over the stores and streets. His cavalrymen burned the large brick depot, along with all the railcars on the track and the railroad bridges on each side of town. They demanded ransoms from area flour and grist mills. After looting stores and taking about $500, they departed in the afternoon.
In Versailles, a group of freebooters invaded the local Masonic Lodge, Versailles No. 7, and stole the Lodge's office badges made from French silver coins. Morgan, himself a Freemason, ordered the officers' jewels returned, punishing the thievery of his men.
Morgan finally left Indiana at Harrison, closely pursued by U.S. cavalry.
Ohio & West Virginia
The Confederates entered Ohio on July 13, destroying bridges, railroads, and government stores. Morgan's raid spread alarm across southern and central Ohio and caused speculation about his destination. Harper's Weekly, a leading Northern newspaper, reported:
The raid of the rebel Morgan into Indiana, which he seems to be pursuing with great boldness, has thoroughly aroused the people of that State and of Ohio to a sense of their danger. On 13th General Burnside declared martial law in Cincinnati, and in Covington and Newport on the Kentucky side. All business is suspended until further orders, and all citizens are required to organize in accordance with the direction of the State and municipal authorities. There is nothing definite as to Morgan's whereabouts; but it is supposed that he will endeavor to move around the city of Cincinnati and cross the river between there and Maysville. The militia is concentrating, in obedience to the order of Governor Tod.
— July 25, 1863, Harper's Weekly
Sidestepping Burnside's forces that protected Cincinnati to the south he traveled through such northern communities as Harrison, New Baltimore, Colerain, Springdale, Glendale and Sharonville. Morgan and his men ran into significant resistance when trying to capture Camp Dennison. Morgan would eventually retreat and regroup with the other column of his men in Montgomery and bypass Camp Dennison through Wards Corner. Morgan continued east to the Ohio River where, just north of modern Ravenswood, West Virginia, there was a ford at Buffington Island that would allow him to cross over into that state. Burnside correctly guessed Morgan's intentions. Federal columns under Edward H. Hobson and Henry M. Judah and river gunboats swiftly converged to contest any river crossing. Burnside also sent a militia regiment from Marietta, Ohio, to hold the ford until the Federal forces could arrive. Morgan arrived on the evening of July 18 but decided not to attack the militia in the gathering darkness. It proved to be a mistake.
By morning, the cavalry and gunboats had arrived, blocking Morgan's escape route. At the subsequent Battle of Buffington Island in Ohio, Union troops won a decisive victory and captured 1,025 of Morgan's men in total, including his brother Richard and noted cavalryman Col. Basil W. Duke. Cut off from safety by the Union gunboats, Morgan and his remaining cavaliers headed northeast back into Ohio. A second attempt at crossing 20 miles (32 km) upriver (opposite Belleville, West Virginia) also failed, with several of Morgan's men drowning in the swirling river as the gunboats and Union cavalry again drove off the raiders. Col. Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson and over 300 raiders escaped into West Virginia and safety, but General Morgan remained on the Ohio side with the rest of his dwindling force. He was turned away at skirmishes in Gallia County at Coal Hill and Hockingport, losing more of his force.
As Morgan, with 400 remaining men, headed away from the river into the interior of southern Ohio, he paused at Nelsonville, a small town on the Hocking Canal. His men burned ten wooden canal boats and set a covered bridge ablaze to slow their pursuers. However, as soon as Morgan's raiders rode off, citizens rushed to save the burning span. Two hours later, Union cavalry arrived, delighted to find that the townspeople had prepared a feast for them.