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Show Civil brRalderjW -V. The "General- IHLT " JP Morgan 11 , " i ' MStete1 ' xv i 1 1 "I i mill illi Jllif VVKr'A2ffiWWT,'F,ll)ht of Johnson ooJohrwjoililWKl. " ,J X-- vv r.Agy'iy.r:, Andrew's Men Sanduskij Bauj , LaKe Erie ' 'tV -! Where Morgan Surrendered 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON .n . T WAS Just 70 years ago this VlH i I summer that the two states of ' ,,mo and Indiana were having i 1 CSW' 11 11,1(1 case f the ,utors- Tlie reason for their state of nerves is contained In these lines from ll'tf&Sj. ml t n poem ("Kentucky Belle" -feVTftifcL- remember It in the old Fourth 'viffl'V' Header?) that told about "Morgan, Morgan, the Haider, and Morgan's terrible men Willi liowle knife and pistols are galloping up the glen." The raid, led by Gen. John Hunt Morgan (in 1SC3 colonel of a cavalry regiment in Gen. Braxton J'.ragg's Confederate army his brigadier briga-dier generalship coming later) was one of the most spectacular and daring enterprises in the Civil war. Boldly conceived and skillfully executed, exe-cuted, its leader failed in his announced purpose pur-pose of "watering his horses In Lake Erie" but he did succeed in reaching the point farthest north attained by any Southern troops on active service during the war, and the expedition just missed being carried to a triumphant conclusion conclu-sion through no fault of Morgan's, but because a swift and unexpected rise of the Ohio river prevented his reaching safety at the last moment. mo-ment. For, as a ballad later composed by one of his hard-riding troopers and sung by his surviving sur-viving comrades, bad It "Oh, Morgan crossed the river, And I went across with him I was captured In Ohio Just because 1 couldn't swim !" When on June 11 Morgan and approximately l,r)00 cavalrymen crossed the Cumberland river In Tennessee and started north, his secret destination desti-nation was Ohio. After a number of skirmishes with Union troops stationed as garrisons of towns along the line of march, he reached the Ohio at Bragdensburg, July 7, captured two steamboats, drove off HOI) Federal militia and two Federal gunboats, am" then crossed the river to Indiana. He was now in the heart of enemy territory, his little force pursued by thousands thou-sands of Federals from the Kentucky camps, and facing hostile militia, populace and soldiery wherever he might turn. Descending on Cory-don, Cory-don, he found 4.000 militia drawn up to bar his way. He dispersed them and moved on without halting through Salisbury and Palmyra to Salem. From Salem he proceeded on up the Ohio, destroying de-stroying and burning as lie went, in effort to cripple the transportation system and deprive the Federals of their stores. At Versailles he encountered en-countered a strong force of enemy troops sent to capture him hut eluded them and continued on his way. After threatening Cincinnati, he skirted the city and reach Camp Shady. There he destroyed a large number of Federal army wagons, much forage and other supplies. Continuing Con-tinuing east, laying waste to rail lines, he finished fin-ished his dash through Ohio at Pomeroy. At that time It was estimated 25,000 Federal troops were hot in pursuit of the daring raiders. Kven then Morgan might have made his escape Into Virginia, but for an unexpected rise in the Ohio that delayed the command and prevented it from crossing the river immediately. While they were compelled to wait. Federal troops and gunboats gun-boats came up. The raiders pushed further up the river to another ford. Here many crossed before the pursuers caught up, and made their escape. Hemmed in by Federals, the remainder of the command split up in small groups some escaping, escap-ing, some being captured. General Morgan and a large number of his followers escaped, doubled back on the trail and headed toward Athens and Zanesville. But the game was about up. Maj. George Rue of the Ninth Kentucky cavalry had thrown a cordon of troops across the path of the fleeing raider south of New Lisbon and there on July CO. ISO;?, Morgan surrendered to his fellow-Ken-tuckian who for the past two years had been "kept busy chasing John Morgan out of Kentucky." Ken-tucky." A bronze tablet set in a huge bowlder on the little-traveled Beaver Creek road today marks the high water mark of the Confederacy. Even if Morgan failed to "water his horses In Lake Erie." it remained for two other Confederate Confed-erate leaders, John Y. Beall and David H. Ross, to enjoy a spectacular, though brief career, on that body of water and to create almost as much consternation in Union hearts as had the bold Kentuckian. At the outbreak of the Civil war Ross was an eighteen-year-old cadet in the Macon Guards, the pride of Georgia. Captured at the battle of Knoxville, Tenn.. Ross was sent to a Union prison pri-son camp on the shores of Lake Erie from which he soon escaped and made his way to Toronto, where he became acquainted with Jacob Thompson, Thomp-son, formerly secretary of the interior In President Presi-dent Buchanan's cabinet, hut now an agent for The Confederacy in enlisting Southern sympathizers sympa-thizers among the Canadians and in aiding Confederate Con-federate sympathizers to escape. Thompson sent Ross to Windsor to report to Despite the Michigan's superior speed, the Philo Parsons gajned the shelter of the Detroit river. There the prisoners were landed. Many of the "pirates" also went ashore and disappeared. disap-peared. Then Beall and Ross, with only a handful hand-ful of men left, steered the Philo Parsons out into deep water and scuttled her. After that it was every man for himself. Most of them escaped, but Captain Beall was captured, cap-tured, tried by court martial, found guilty of "piracy," and was hanged ,on Governor's island, N. Y., on February 24, 1SG5. Ross went to Hamilton, Ont, where he was given refuge by a family whose relatives were in the Confederate armies. In spite of the placards pla-cards and bills posted everywhere offering rewards re-wards for his capture, Ross got to Halifax and was even bold enough to have his picture taken while there. A blockade runner took him to Wilmington, N. C. The Confederate authorities recognized his services by making him a captain in the secret service. He was, however, impatient to get back Into the fray, and rejoined his old company In time to participate in the battles around Richmond. He remained on duly until Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and was again wounded shortly before be-fore the cessation of hostilities. Grant, in his second administration, issued a special pardon relieving Captain Ross of the charges of piracy. For more than 40 years he lived at Grand Haven in the state which he and his fellow "pirates" had once thrown into an uproar and he finally moved to Minneapolis, Minn., where he died in 1927 at the age of eighty-three. Thousands of visitors to A Century of Progress Prog-ress in Chicago this year have seen a relic of another famous Civil war raid the locomotive "The General" which stands across from the Travel and Transport building. This was the engine used by the "Andrews Raiders," named for their leader, James J. Andrews, who like Gen. John H. Morgan, was a Kentuckian. Only in this case a Kentuckian was leading a Union raid through Confederate territory and instead of being mounted on the kind of thoroughbred horses for which Kentucky is famous, as Morgan Mor-gan was, their steed was an "iron horse." It was on the morning of April 12, 1862, that the train drawn by "The General," en route from Atlanta, Ga., to Chattanooga, Tenn., stopped at Marietta, Ga. Here a considerable party of strangers, stran-gers, dressed in civilian clothes and claiming to be refugees from within the Yankee lines who were desirous of joining the Confederate forces, boarded the train and paid their fares. Capt, W. A. Fuller, who was in charge of the train, did not have the slightest inkling that these strangers were Union soldiers who were planning plan-ning to capture his train and use it to paralyze traffic on the Western and Atlantic railroad, one of the vital arteries of transport for the Confederacy, Con-federacy, by burning the 15 bridges which lay between Chattanooga and Big Shanty. Their opportunity came when the train stopped at Big Shanty for breakfast. While they were thus occupied the strangers, whose leader was James J. Andrews, a citizen of Flemingsburg, Ky., who had volunteered to perform this dangerous dan-gerous task, cut away all but three cars in the train, climbed into the engine cab and steamed away. Captain Fuller believed that those who had taken his train were deserters from Camp McDonald, Mc-Donald, a recruit camp at Big Shanty. At once he dashed to the telegraph office to send a warning to stations farther up the line, only to discover that the telegraph wires had been cut. Accompanied by two or three others, he ran to Moon's Station, two miles away, and obtained ob-tained a handcar on which they set out in pursuit pur-suit of the raiders. Then followed the race which has become a classic in American history Andrews and his party leading the way with "The General," setting set-ting fire to bridges, tearing up the tracks in places and putting obstructions on it in others, and behind them Fuller and his men, first on the hand car, then on the engine "Yonah" and finally on "The Texas," racing after them and gaining on them until at last the fugitives in a desperate elTort to shake off their pursuers set (ire to the last freight car and cut It loose on a bridge. But before the bridge could catch fire, Fuller had run up to the car, coupled on and pulled it away. By this time the fugitives had deserted the engine and escaped into the woods. But mounted militia were soon hot on their trail and within a short time all of the Andrews party, 22 in number, were captured. They were taken "back to Atlanta and tried before a military court. Eight, among them Andrews, the leader, were found guilty and executed as spies, six were paroled pa-roled and eight later escaped from prison at Atlanta. On March 2T,, ISO!!, medals of honor were presented by Secretary of War Stanton to the six who were paroled and later the eight who escaped from prison were also gP-on medals. med-als. Of those who had been ex ecu ten medals were delivered to the mothers of one of them and to the widows of two others. (6 by Western Nevreimpor Union.) Capt. John Yeates Beall, another Confederate agent, who had a plan which had been turning over in his mind for some time. It was to raise a crew of refugee Confederates in Canada, take possession of the Philo Parsons, one of the lake steamers plying between Detroit and Sandusky, Ohio, and with it capture the war steamer, Michigan, Mich-igan, a side-wheeler armed with 14 guns, and use it to attack Fort Johnson onTohnson island in Sandusky bay, where more than 1,000 Confederates, Con-federates, most of them officers, were held as prisoners of war. If the plot were successful the Confederates would have control of the Great Lakes and could cause incalculable damage dam-age to Union shipping and the Union cause before be-fore they could be suppressed. The intelligence department of the Union forces in Michigan learned of the plot but. allowed al-lowed it to go forward in the hope of capturing the ringleaders befors any serious damage could be done. So on the morning of September 19, 1S64, when the Philo Parsons left Detroit with 40 passengers on board, among them were several sev-eral of Beall's conspirators. One of these asked the boat's clerk, Walter O. Ashley, who was also part owner of the boat, to stop at Sandwich, Sand-wich, Ont., to take on a party of men desiring to go down the river. Accordingly this was done. The new passengers were well dressed and gave every appearance of being prosperous travelers. At Maiden, about twenty miles below Detroit, twenty more came on board. These had a trunk with them as their only piece of baggage. bag-gage. The Philo Parsons continued on her way, stopping at North Bass, Middle Bass and South Bass islands and finally reached Kelly's island, where four more men joined the passengers. Then, soon after the Philo Parsons left Kelly's island, on its way to Sandusky, the officers, crew and the rest of the passengers found themselves looking into the barrels of pistols flourished by the newcomers. The trunk had yielded its stock of firearms, hatchets and other formidable weapons. wea-pons. The captain of the boat was persuaded to relinquish command and the crew and the male passengers were given temporary lodgment In the vessel's hold. Beall took command of the boat as captain and Ross was first mate. With true southern chivalry, Beall and Ross ordered a banquet to be spread and the Confederates Con-federates entertained the women passengers as befitting southern gentlemen. While these festivities were going on the Island Queen, with 170 Federal soldiers on board, pulled up alongside the Philo Parsons. This was just what Captain Beall wanted. It was all very well to impress noncombatants with his prowess, but the enemy in uniform and fully accoutered promised more excitement. It never will he known, perhaps, why the Union Un-ion soldiers did not make short work of this handful of Confederates. At any rate, Beall and Ross, leaving a few men to guard the Philo Parsons, took the rest of their command and, after firing a few shots into the Island Queen, sprang on hoard and captured the crew, who were too astonished at this unexpected sally even to fire a shot in return. With the Island Queen and the 170 Union men in tow the Philo Parsons set her prow toward Sandusky to capture Fort Johnson there and seize the Michigan, at that time the fastest steamer on the lakes. The commander of the Michigan had, however, been warned that a daredevil band was making things uncomfortably warm for lake shipping. The commander, therefore, carefully laid his plans and got his men ready for the "pirates." He had the fort at his back to help him in the event matters threatened to get out of hand. Beall and his men had scuttled the Island Queen and taken their prisoners aboard the Philo l'arsons preparatory to attacking the Michigan. Mich-igan. When the commander of the latter vessel si-hted the enemy he set out in chase and the Philo Parsons turned about nnd fled. "The Michigan." Mich-igan." as Ross explained years later, "had twelve guns. We had only our pistols." So it is evident evi-dent that the Confederates took the only wise course in heading for safety. |