Show ay t f u R 1 Hyry w H tt J f oraan f t it 11 i iA jU A Sa J H f fd d r f fp pj j U- U f 1 p IP P o 0 R Raider y oy y h 1 y yi I i io o alder the i I Pi Pil l s r 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON F YOU are a Northerner you ou probably thInk of Gen John Hunt Morgan as n a fierce bets bc ed cd lender leader of 1 equally fierce fiel cc be bewhiskered horsemen horse horse- horsemen men a guerilla n a highwayman man and anda n a horse thIef That mental Image Is compounded of one or all of tIll thI ee Items Hems You remember the storIes your yom grandfather told you ou of how he and hIs neIghbors In or OhIo seized their squirrel rifles or muskets back inthe In Inthe the summer sommer of 1863 1803 and forth to defend their home land from being ravaged by a party of rebel raiders You recIted nt at school a poem called Kentucky Belle by l Woolson with those unforgettable lines Morgan Morgan l the and Morgans Morgan's terrible men With bOWIe knife and pistol are lre galloping up the glen Your childish e es cs studied ss Ith fascinated In- In Interest interest terest the in 10 some old bool book ably mush HIstory of the Cn 11 War and you ou sass sa for Cor boa ho terrible Mor- Mor Morgan gnu gan and ane his terrible men looked If you ou are a Southerner you ou probably think ot of Gen John Hunt Morgan n as n a combination of Beau S breur and Prince Rupert as the veri- veri veritable veritable table symbol of the ante helium bellum South In which all the women were lovely and all the men were modern knights errant rIding forth to brave and daring deeds on the backs of the finest horses In the world orld And whether Northerner or Southerner If you ou ever read The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by John Pox fox Jr you remember In It the glImpses of what hat seemed to be one of the most dashing romantIc figures In AmerIcan history this same Gen John Hunt Morgan Somewhere between those t two 0 extremes lies the true picture of thIs man and It Is that sort which IIo and ard Sw S whose book The Rebel A Raider BIOgraphy of John Hunt Morgan has bas just been publIshed by the Dobbs Merrill Merr company compan hs h's trIed to paint Both Northerners and Southerners as described at the beginning of this article will m find much In Mr Ir getts gett's book to confirm their vIews but no one nn an extreme e cin s rl Quarrel with his conclusions about Mot MOlgan gan gannor nor doubt that this Is as honest as fair and as accurate a portrait of him as cnn can be paInted from the evidence e after the 70 years which have elapsed since lie he dIed In brief tillS thus Ie Ic the life story of John Hunt Morgan Born to In Hunts lIle Aln Ah June I 1 18 3 he be grew lip up In r Lexington Ky K under the code ot of the young of the Blue Criss aristocracy who vho learned the arts of riding fencIng gunnery And how to scale a fortress or a nunnery A student It college at the age of sixteen he was twenty one when hen he enlisted In the FIrst Kentuck to sen sere e In the Mexican Melcan war ar lIe was IS at VIsta but saw lIttle other fighting before he was as mustered out the next y and returnee returned to I e e to en- en engage gage In the of hemp ln ind the gen general general eral mel business s left him by his grandfather In 18 hr hp married Rebecca Gritz Bruce named for her ance Rebecca Gritz whom Washington Irving to SIr Walter Wal- Wal Walter ter Scott and ho was lS the model for Cor the char char- character acter of I Rebecca In h Is In Morgan founded the Lexington Le Rifles mOes a militia company of the young oung bloods of that thatto to town n At the outbreak of the Vir Between een the States Kentucky as a state te tried to remain neu- neu neutral neutral nut But not so her spirited young men Some of them joined the Union army tad others the Confederate Before the was n as 0 oser er she was to knot to the fullest the horrors of a cIvIl war with members member of the same family arrayed against each other and once more to become a Dirk and Bloody Ground After the firing on Fort rort Sumter Morgan begin drilling his Lexington Rifles In the armol armory y In that city and all through the summer of continued to drill them under the suspIcious eyes of Union troops stationed at Camp Dick Robinson which had been established near Lee Le Ington Then one moonlIght night In September er some of the Lexington eluding the wig lance Hance of Union Umon watchers slipped awns awa down n the pIke toward the Confederate camp of oC Gen Simon BoUvar Buckner Buchner at Bowling Dowling Green Almost as figures as Morgan himself were some of the men who ho ro rode e with fth him There 1 here were his five brothers the youngest Key Morgan Mor Morgan gan tweed for their famous e who ho wrote r te The Star tar Spangled Banner There w ere t two 0 others who symbolised s the two t of Morbin's nature Basil Duke Dule long hIs second In chivalrous generous soldierly and T 1 II Hines a scholar and It charming charmin to his corn com comrades rades dangerous to his hI enemies Insolent to his Ius captors t tent twenty ent one when he joined the army army- a year older thin John 11 lutes Booth to whom horn hornbe he be bore so extraordinary a ph resemblance that the vitality of the story that th Booth was alise c after G arose from people seeing HInes and thinking It was as Booth was as perhaps the most I competent man lu In luthe Inthe the Confederacy and the only mind at atoll work oll In Inthe Inthe the con his hi winner of was as secret sen Ice plot the escape very verv antithesis of Duke It Then there thele was the I soldier of fortune St Leger Grenfell- Grenfell n a man nian out of a abool book bool by G A rather thin life an IncredIble Ible ble figure who ho had been a d and became Inspector general at sl slay ty years of age lIge In Braggs Bragg's arms and ane that Arica of the Ellsworth orth the telegraph operator whose hoso malicious comedy come y was to cause ha oc In Northern l headquarters III His face had the tragic mask of the treat After joining Buckners Buckner's army Morgan and lOtI hIs Lexington Rifles engaged In scouting and nn petrol work worl In It he began that cale r of SWIft sue sud sudden den gobbling up pickets and In InC C evry try way ny possible le harassing the UnIon lines which hId the foundation for his reputation in inthe inthe the th of being n a guerilla leader It was a reputation which northern sedulously promoted even though he l a regu regularly commissioned officer In the Confederate army first ns as colonel of the Second Kentucky cavalry and later as n a brigadier general com minding a of horsemen from Crom that state ll By the sprIng or of 1502 he was as already on his 44 a S Capt 4 H Ha a a t tJ tR J R 7 C Cr r c John Hunt Morgan eke Meke r s 's M Mp p O N z oa w x v e o ti Kw a y yo yN F Fr r y 1 t N Where Morgan organ Surrendered d in Greeneville Tenn fi 4 r tid w M k kM J f t J ti 1 3 s fi f at I 1 Fv t tN N 1 11 r t t y I Iw Ik Ir w k 3 y r Y NN d fat q f a w wo o w o a x f Gen John Hunt Morgan Pictures from The Rebel Raider courtesy Babbs Merrill company C J Wl wiy to fame In both the North and the South At lie f ho el gre It under fire and when hen Beauregard fell hick after that bit bittie tie It was Margin s lh civili ho w ho co cos ered IllS his Then came hl his first firt Brent raid Into fen fennessee which he IH 0 ed to the that he wis a tricks as asell ell w ell 1 1 1 brne tr e advel siry On more thin ont occasion he and his men sue suc succeeded In passing e off as Union v- v airy and ane fooled not only northern s sy ers in that rilon r but the men In blue lS is sell ell Ills next raid took him Into as a apart apart part of the movement made ml o by b Gen 11 1 by Smith to e Iten I movement which hid the state or of Ohio In something of a pink for awhile I Morgins Morgin's home town was their fir fh St 1 1 e- e 1 hey h rode north for the beloved belo blue grins s through fOle ts tad lOd be beside side sille the Thel e svgs nothing ill III e a It l the long column singing from end to end delIrious with Ith the blowing In Sep r weather e ind the of their beloved state Dui e a was Into h nto with tile the of the ous and wrote the Song ong of the on the mu ch I hue the Otic e et t 1 ind of warfare which Ih 1 tits so o well 11 Into the south couth southern ern version of the lor in my m tit th Another of the s une ane kind time tile the following winter Inter DUrin During t the e e on Morgan 1 was dS in Giat Bruce Mom Mom- to hal had died In this tune time to Martha artha a young gh 1 scarcely half his age Pre President Jefferson ini h himself came to for the wedding and tic the w el ete e married by bv I Poll Polk the bishop general who wore his Episcopal robes over his heuten ant generals general s Of this ed wedding ln more liter for It marked a tu point In Morgans Morgan's career In time Uw the great raid Into and Ohio which has been the subject of so much leg legend legend end and upon which 11 11 his fame Is 1 1 based It ended with Ith his A Anear near I at ant I and the tho Imprisonment of Morgan and his 1113 officers In the stile penitentiary at Columbus from flom which he and SI of his of beers heers escaped a few months liter his hll ss I ry through the lines went ent to Richmond where he was given a 1 great bleat 0 Uon and n a nc new command nut But his next raid Into Kentucky was as not only n failure but brought down O n upon him suspicIon of incompetence or worse orso 1 he star of John hunt Morgan l was lS waning fast and ane It set for forever forever ever on September 3 1801 t when h he was 1 by Union troopers In the garden arden of the home borne In Greener Greene tile Tenn Dashing bashing and romantic a figure as Morgan was wasand and successful as he was In the short swift raiding type of warfare lie ho may hue hive been a magnIficent fighter In battle but he was as not a gl e soldIer Sa Says s his biographer A technIcal military book asserts he pOl al- al altel tel ell cn ca all tittles and operations opera b by gl giving up the saber slber and nOlI fightIng his command as lie he final judgment of the high com command mand hO e was as much that of Brat Bratton ton Bragg who that If he came back at nIl all from one one of his raIds It would be as usual after se seel el e losses and with Ith a command For Morgan l allowed allon ed himself elf to be SUI tad defeated b the enem enemy too often to be ered a great soldier and the way ay In which Mch he alienated his best lieutenants and eventually lost the confidence and respect of his men weak weak- weakens ens any claim be may hate ha to being a great t commander Although he may mav hive 1 It 01 cd ca tactIcs he seems to hive hwe been lacking In an understand understandIng Ing of the principles of strategy and unable to t o view the conflict In n which he wis IS fightIng In Its larger aspects Some of hIs raids were el e not only y futIle but foolish and apparently based solely y upon its vanity In the emly da s of the war ar r hi H experienced the III of tiding In triumph at atthe a athe t the lend of Ills fils troopers into hIs home to town ton n o of f Lexington Le there to be given n a out o tIon after he tried abos abo aboe e a almost an any thing g else to mil e a tI l entry Into Lexington Le cost what It might In military nut But lor 1 Morgan an IS not to he be entirely blamed for forthe forthe r the futility of his famous of Into Indian 1 and Ohio According to the e evidence IH d In this book he made this under t orders from President Davis as a part t of the Copperhead conspiracy In the Old North Northwest west est It s lS is timed to correspond with Ith lees lee's I ee s advance Into Penns Pennsylvania and If as DavIs s hoped hopee southern rs rallIed to the Stars s and nOlI Bars nars IS I ee ci ossed the Mason l and ane Dho n line ln ind Morgan l crossed the Ohio the North s t of prosecution of the war ar r would collapse and there thel would be i 1 demand for fo r peace the northern President dare not no t disregard But Dims IS undoubtedly hid been de- de dec d c ced ed as to the power pO er of the Copperheads In Inthe inthe n the lotto Ol th and they dill did not lall tally to the Con Confederate Confederate federate as he had hoped lor 0 In pushing on through Ohio found th the e populace cele the at Gett g and and most not In a re e mood toward to ard him ind his Ius raiders So he li e became the s of DaVis although i he must belr beir some of the of his hi s failure lie he illow 1110 ed cd his hIs men to get et out of o f hind and their looting of the of South 01 cili n s s as well ell as Northern a mis mistake take that later repeated In Kentuck Kentucky an d 1 1 ee probably ly would hive doomed the e ex expedition to f elute If nothing else lied IIo er r ln s connection with the Copperhead con sou had hul one result for him later r It Bided lion to escape from flOm the Columbus pent tenh r try by of bribery Imbery and not by b tunnel tunneling ing his ss l ty out nut under Its wills a as the famIlIar r l enl has It 1 hue me ate n num el of factors In Morgan s e is as fI a leader according to this thi s biographer It it lb It dUl during mg the months month s ss from flom AprIl to Juh Jul there thero begin In l Mo r sr gau a subtle decay of will ilL lie He hid to co com m promise promIe vs Ith himself elf seems to 1 k till all of mind ne Is one time too ga gay another too depressed In July 1 he was us going to pieces rapidly Ihs his mental In i n stability w lS as now no clo close ie to m 01 t t His whole hole career followed folIoed folIo ed the tl tingle palter u of those lives cl w ues ne neel et el eITe th ely emerge e achild hom flom the 11 I and Ideas of a ea child The great reat Issues of time the war ar becam e d for him ee so that e a child ho h e thinks himself the of It nil lIe Is u pied with Ith impossible le fantasies e Is seldom that he can hold bold to a decIsIOn 1 hele is 15 no doubt or of his last ast attraction for both bot h men relations and women omen but l e eien een en these rela ref a lions turn to conflict and antagonism so that tha t In iii the end his whole hole turns away from fro m the place w here he Is dying d toI After the war hl his body boll was as brought back to t o I e to lie In the tho lot with Ith the ns Morgans the th e Hunts Hunt the Dudle Dudley s and the Dukes Morgan lie s In the Inner of ring stones next neat to his hi s mother The rIng of stones Is vel and an d curves curve slightly outward as though all the gre relt it clan had rallied close around him against his hi s enemies I 4 by l UnIon |