General John H. Morgan

“General Morgan, born in Huntsville, Ala., June 1st, 1826, died near Greeneville, Tenn., September 4th, 1864. He served in the War with Mexico as first lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. At the opening of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as captain of the Kentucky Volunteers, and joined General Simon B. Buckner at the head of the Lexington Rifles. During the winter of 1862-’3 he commanded a cavalry force in General Braxton Bragg’s army, and greatly annoyed General Rosecrans’s outposts and communications. He soon began a series of raids in Kentucky, which made it necessary to garrison every important town in the State. In 1862 he was appointed major general. In 1863 he headed a bold and extensive raid into Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, but was captured and imprisoned in the Ohio Penitentiary. He escaped by digging his way out in November, 1863, and then undertook a raid in Tennessee. While at a farmhouse near Greeneville, Tenn., he was surrounded by Federal troops under General Gillem, and in attempting to escape was killed."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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