Morgan was noted for his swift and
daring raids into
Union held Tennessee and Kentucky, the
destruction
he and
his raiders caused to Union supply
lines and
garrisons, and the fear and
consternation he
inspired in Northern
cities, where citizens dreaded a visit
from "Morgan
and his terrible men."
The long series of successful raids came
to a halt
in July 1863, when Morgan ventured too
far into
Northern
territory. He was raiding through
Indiana and Ohio
when he and most of his men were
captured. Instead
of being
treated as a prisoner of war, Morgan
was confined
in Ohio State Penitentiary and had his
head shaved
as though
he were a felon. After four months in
prison Morgan
engineered a daring escape and made his
way back to
Confederate territory.
After being feted in Richmond in
celebration of
escape, Morgan returned to making his
daring raids
into Kentucky
and Tennessee. At dawn on September 4,
1864, the
house in Greeneville, Tennessee, where
Morgan had
stayed for
the night was suddenly surrounded by
Union cavalry.
Morgan was shot and killed as he raced
through the
yard in
his nightshirt, trying to reach his
horse in the
stable. When the Yankees departed and
Morgan's men
came to the
house, they found the Union soldiers
had
respectfully brought Morgan into the
house and laid
out his body for
burial.
Mexican War veteran and Kentucky
businessman
John H. Morgan joined the Confederate
army as a
captain of a
cavalry squadron in April 1861. By
December of the
following year he had risen to the rank
of general
and was
on his way to becoming one of the most
famous and
most successful of the Confederate
cavalry leaders.
His
December 14, 1862, wedding, the social
event of the
war in the western theater, was
officiated by
Episcopal
minister and Confederate General
Leonidas Polk and
was attended by Gens. Braxton Bragg,
William J.
Hardee,
Benjamin Cheatham, and John C.
Breckinridge.