General John Hunt Morgan
On few Confederate leaders was so much praise heaped as was on General John Hunt Morgan, at least while he lived. He was called the “Thunderbolt.jpg) of the Confederacy”, the “Rebel Raider” and “Our Southern Marion” by southerners. He was idolized as the perfect southern gentleman. He was the role model every young boy should emulate. He was the kind of man every southern woman could love. In the north, he was hated just as much as he was loved in the south. Some Yankees grudgingly called him the “Great guerrilla” but more often they called him the “Great freebooter” or the “King of horse thieves.”Much of John Hunt Morgan’s legend stems from the psychological effect he had on both friends and enemies. For one who never had more than four thousand men under his command, any rational study of the effects of his colorful and daring raids on the eventual outcome of the war would have to conclude that they exerted little influence. Nevertheless, he was such an interesting and romantic character that numerous biographies and some works of historical fiction have been built around John Hunt Morgan’s real or imagined escapades. Two of the more readable accounts of his raids are Rebel Raider by James Ramage and Cap’n Tom- Crisis of Faith by John Bridges. The most detailed account of the life and adventures of John Hunt Morgan is Basil Duke’s, A History of Morgan’s Cavalry. This somewhat biased volume by Morgan’s brother-in-law and second in command is long, laborious and only for those who want to delve into every detail of Morgan’s military life. Although John Hunt Morgan’s military career started with the Mexican War and ended on September 4, 1864 when he was killed as he attempted to escape from a house in Greenville, Tennessee, much happened in the intervening years. The most significant raids led by John Hunt Morgan were the Hartsville, Tennessee raid of December 7, 1862, the so called Christmas Raid into Kentucky the last week in December that same year and the Great Raid into Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio in the summer of 1863. The most entertaining and readable account of these three raids is the story as told by one of Morgan’s junior officers in the book, Cap’n Tom-Crisis of Faith by John Bridges.  |