Brigadier General John Pegram: A Failure of Command

Brigadier General John Pegram, a Virginian educated at West Point, was highly unpopular with his subordinates.

"A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops."

~General John J. Pershing

John Pegram seemed to possess the makings of an ideal officer. He came from a well respected Virginia family, had graduated tenth in his class at West Point, had Cavalry experience and even spent time in Europe observing the war between Italy and Austria. Yet, with all the right credentials, Pegram struggled in leadership roles.

From the beginning, Pegram’s superior attitude and sense of entitlement led to disagreements.

Rather than accept the first position offered when enlisting with the Confederacy, Pegram negotiated for months, wrangling the best possible deal. When finally commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in July of 1861, Pegram was sent to western Virginia to serve in Brigadier General Richard Garnett’s command. Upon his arrival, Pegram incurred the disregard of his fellow officers by disputing matters of seniority.[i]

Pegram’s inability to get along with others also led to disgrace on the battlefield. In August 1861, while defending a mountain pass, Pegram refused to heed intelligence from his subordinate officer.

"…Not long after the sounds of axes could be heard on the left of Camp Garnett as well. Captain Higginbotham heard the chopping on his left, and twice sent word…to Pegram. The Captain was curtly told ‘to mind his own business.’ This ended any further communications between the two officers…" [ii]

Moments later the arrogant Pegram was astonished to find Union forces attacked from his left. Flustered to the point of being unable to counter balance the attack, Pegram’s unit was quickly flanked and cut off from Garnett’s main force. Pegram panicked. Lost and completely disoriented, he abandoned any attempt at escape in favor of surrender. Thus, Pegram became the first former U.S. Army officer captured during the Civil War. He spent the next six months as “a guest of the North.”[iii]

After his parole, Pegram lobbied Richmond for promotion to general. He was instead promoted to Colonel and briefly served as a military engineer for Pierre G. T. Beauregard. He was quickly reassigned as Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith’s Chief of Staff during Kirby Smith’s unsuccessful raid into Kentucky.[iv]

In November 1862, Pegram was entrusted by Kirby Smith as one of three cavalry brigade commanders. The small brigade was a rag-tag lot, composed, at various times, of the 1st Louisiana, 1st Georgia, 1st Florida, 1st and 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiments, the 16th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion, and Huwald’s Tennessee Artillery Battalion.[v]

The other commanders selected by Kirby Smith, John Hunt Morgan and Colonel John S. Scott, found Pegram difficult to work with. The complaints appear to have stemmed from cultural clashes between the well bred Virginian who insisted on polished manners and the somewhat rougher “western ways” of officers from Kentucky and Tennessee. Pegram, accustomed to the gentile nobility of Richmond’s high society and the unlimited wealth of planters looked down his nose at officers he considered to be little more than uneducated farmers and poor mountaineers. Likewise, these patriotic volunteers resented this West pointer who couldn’t seem to handle leading a group of eager but untrained young men.

A superior attitude does not become an officer. Inability to work with fellow officers, poor personal relations with the enlisted men, and a reprehensible lack of planning and execution doomed Pegram to failure.

“But there was something wrong about his generalship. His relations with non-Virginians and volunteers were strained. His judgment on the battlefield, especially when in independent duty outside the direct supervision of his commander, was often poor.”[vi]

Brigadier General John Wharton began to question Pegram’s ability to employ artillery effectively.[vii]

Tensions increased when Colonel Scott was assigned to Pegram, a move that cause Scott to feel demoted.

Pegram's brigade was assigned to picket the Cumberland River and defend two northern Tennessee counties.

In early 1863, Pegram was selected to lead a nine day cavalry raid into Kentucky. It was during this raid that the displeasure of his subordinates became overt. Colonels Henry M. Ashby of the 1st Tennessee and John S. Scott of the 1st Louisiana openly questioned Pegram’s tactical decisiveness. John Hunt Morgan joined these men in their unrestrained criticism of their leader.

“…There was no fault to be found with the valor of the men who composed it [the Army of Tennessee]. But its history is one long tragic story of changing commanders, of bickering and wrangling among its leaders, of victories whose fruits were not gathered, of defeats which by a slight turn of fortune’s wheel might have been signal victories – a discouraging succession of disappointments and might-have-beens.”[viii]

March 19, 1863

Huwald’s Tennessee Battery and Pegram's Brigade were en route to Kentucky.

“The Division of Cavalry, commanded by Gen. John Pegram, to which my battery of Horse artillery was attached,….”

~Captain Gust. A. Huwald

Pegram would march as far north as Danville.[ix]

March 25, 1863

The Union seemed unperturbed by this latest raid.

“Wednesday, March 25
Rebels reported at Danville 2,000 strong. Sent out on picket with nine men in charge. See nothing of importance. Part of pickets on mud road which is almost impassable in wagon train start for Lexington.”

~ Charles W. Durling, Company G, 45th Ohio Infantry[x]



ENDNOTES

[i]. Armstrong, Richard L. “25th Virginia Infantry and 9th Battalion, Virginia Infantry,” 1990. p. 14.
[ii] Armstrong, Richard L. “25th Virginia Infantry and 9th Battalion, Virginia Infantry,” 1990. p. 14.
[iii] Freeman, Douglas Southall. “Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command,” 1945.
[iv] “Confederate Military History, Vol. 3. Virginia,” Evans, Clement A., ed. 1962.
[v] O.R., vol. 16, part 2, p. 985.
[vi] Laidig, Scott, “Brigadier General John Pegram, Lee’s Paradoxical Cavalier”
[vii] O.R., vol. 20, part 1, p. 969.
[viii] Horn, Stanley F. “The Army of Tennessee,” 1941
[ix] Kerr,Charles, Connelley, William Elsey, Coulter, Ellis Merton. “History of Kentucky,” p. 901
[x] Diary of Charles W. Durling

Perryville

The Battle of Perryville, sketched by Mr. H. Mosler[i]

“The South was holding on to an ideology that was more traditional. The North represented change. Corporations, commerce - not bad things - but different things and change was a threat.”[ii]

September 20 - October 3, 1862

General Braxton Bragg moved to occupy Bardstown, establishing his headquarters at Edgewood, the house our family knows as the home of Dr. Harry Spalding.[iii]

“Bragg was courageous, and at times imaginative, resourceful, and bold. But he was never patient, either with his men or with the enemy, and he lacked that imperturbability and resolution so necessary in field commanders. Handicapped by poor health, he had no real taste for combat. And he was not lucky. Nor did he have the ability to inspire confidence in his subordinates. Notoriously inept at getting along with people he disliked, he simply could not win the loyalty of his chief lieutenants. He lacked what has been called the common touch. By training and by preference a regular army man, contemptuous of volunteers and a democratic military establishment, he was unsuited to lead an army composed overwhelming of individualistic citizen-soldiers. A mediocre tactician, he seemed unaware of the technological changes that had outdated pre-war assault tactics and strengthened the advantages of defensive combat.”[iv]

The war was had become a part of the daily lives of Southerners. Even women, who were expected to refrain from political arguments and public speaking, publicly lent their pens and voices to the support of the war.

"I was never a Secessionist, for I quietly adopted father's views on political subjects without meddling with them. But even father went over with his State, and when so many outrages were committed by the fanatical leaders of the North, though he regretted the Union, said, ‘Fight to the death for our liberty.’ I say so, too. I want to fight until we win the cause so many have died for. I don't believe in Secession, but I do in Liberty. I want the South to conquer, dictate its own terms, and go back to the Union, for I believe that, apart, inevitable ruin awaits both. It is a rope of sand, this Confederacy, founded on the doctrine of Secession, and will not last many years - not five. The North cannot subdue us. We are too determined to be free. They have no right to confiscate our property to pay debts they themselves have incurred. Death as a nation, rather than Union on such terms. We will have our rights secured on so firm a basis that it can never be shaken. If by power of overwhelming numbers they conquer us, it will be a barren victory over a desolate land. "

~ Sarah Morgan Dawson[v]


October 1862

J. Russell Butler’s 3rd Kentucky and D. Howard Smith’s 5th Kentucky regiments occupied Lexington.[vi]

James Edward Evans had become a member of the 3rd when the 1st was reorganized.

“3rd Cavalry Regiment was organized during the summer of 1862. In October the 1st Kentucky Cavalry Regiment merged into this command and at times was called the 1st (3rd) Kentucky Cavalry. It was assigned to Buford's, T. Harrison's, J. W. Grigsby's, J. S. Williams', and J. H. Lewis' Brigade, and skirmished in numerous actions in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. Later the unit was active in the Atlanta Campaign, the defense of Savannah, and the campaign of the Carolinas. It surrendered with the Army of Tennessee in April, 1865. The field commanders were Colonel J. R. Butler, Lieutenant Colonels Jack Allen and Jacob W. Griffith, and Major J. Q. Chenoweth.”[vii]

“The 1st Kentucky Cavalry was mustered into service in October 1861, under the command of Col. Benjamin H. Helm. By the summer of 1862 its numbers were so depleted that it was reorganized and parceled out to other Kentucky regiments. At this time, Gibson Taylor--a 3rd lieutenant in the 1st Kentucky--was transferred into the command of John Hunt Morgan, under whom he was ‘noted for gallant and meritorious conduct.’”[viii]

October 3, 1862

Confederate General Braxton Bragg vexed with the scant numbers volunteering, sought a means by which he could conscript the unwilling male population of Kentucky into his army. Bragg hastily orchestrated the inauguration of Richard Hawes as the Provisional Governor of Kentucky in the occupied state capitol of Frankfort. The plan was foiled when a celebratory dinner after the ceremonies was interrupted by the approach of Union cavalry and artillery. The Provisional Government was again forced into exile in Tennessee.

October 4, 1862

Buford’s Brigade, along with the 3rd and 5th Kentucky Calvary regiments, was ordered to Versailles.[ix]

Meanwhile, General Whereton's Confederate Calvary, including Captain John Hunt Morgan's "Lexington Rifles" engaged the advance guard of Union General Don Carlos Buell's army at Bardstown. Buell's forces were driven back towards Louisville. Three days later, an Indiana regiment was surrounded and forced to surrender.

“They were about four miles from us when we heard of them Col Wharton ordered us forward immediately in a gallop We very soon made the distance and found them sure enough Their cavalry, four regiments —about two thousand— drawn up in line of battle in an old field and immediately across the road. Their infantry and artillery was on the left. My company was in the advance we charged them immediately without forming they let us get within ten steps of them and then turned loose a volley right in our faces this did not stop us a second we gave a yell you could hear for miles and run over and scattered them in every direction. This was the most complete victory I ever saw we killed forty or fifty of the enemy without the loss of a man. This was very strange considering we were fighting hand to hand. I captured a good horse and enough blankets for Ans and myself all the winter.”

~ M. A. Harvey, Company B, 8th Texas Cavalry[x]

Much needed rain was falling at last, slowing the Union troops marching along Bardstown Road and the path of Cox’s Creek.

“On October 4, Gilbert’s corps turned eastward. Sheridan’s division marched onto a muddy and slippery Bardstown Pike, skirmishing and marching through the rain to support Crittenden in case the Confederates decided to fight for the town, while others moved up Cox’s Creek parallel to the Pike.”[xi]

October 5, 1862

Buford’s Brigade now contained 2,000 cavalrymen and was composed of Butler’s 3rd Kentucky Regiment, H. Smith’s 5th Kentucky Regiment, and Grigsby’s 6th Kentucky Regiment.

When the 3rd and 5th arrived in Versailles, James Edward Evans and his comrades were ordered to patrol roads leading north-west toward Frankfort, and westward toward the Kentucky River.[xii]

“Union troops were in possession of our house and had ordered my mother to prepare a meal for them. She appeared to obey, and took me and a negro woman to the outdoor kitchen and from there escaped through a window, and the three of us spent the night in hiding, in a turnip field.”

~ Ella Johnson[xiii]

October 7-8, 1862

The Battle of Perryville began as a skirmish over a few precious pools of much needed water.

“For months, a severe drought affected the area. As Union and Confederate forces maneuvered around Perryville, both man and horse suffered intensely for want of water. Only stagnant pools were available for the thousands of thirsty soldiers. After the Union army left Louisville, some of the first casualties were caused by this dry, hot weather. One Union colonel wrote, ‘Today we passed two men laying on the roadside having died from sunstroke . . .’ The heat was unbearable, and Perryville’s Chaplin River was nearly dry.

On the night of October 7, the Southerners moved an advance unit of Arkansas troops between the dried waters of Bull Run and Doctor’s Creek, located west of town. When Union forces reached the area, a reconnaissance mission proved that small pools of water were available in Doctor’s Creek. The Union command ordered the water, and the heights overlooking it (called Peter’s Hill), secured. At 3:00 a.m. on October 8, Federal troops under Brigadier General Philip Sheridan moved on Peter’s Hill, driving back the Arkansas soldiers. The Battle of Perryville had begun.

On October 8, 1862, Watkins and 18,000 Confederates clashed with 20,000 Union troops on the hills outside of Perryville. Nearly 7,500 soldiers were killed and wounded in Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle. The Confederate failure to attain a decisive victory kept Kentucky in Union hands for the remainder of the war, stands as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy in the Western Theater, and marked the last major incursion of Confederate forces into the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” [xiv]

“Such obstinate fighting I never had seen before or since. The guns were discharged so rapidly that it seemed the earth itself was in a volcanic uproar. The iron storm passed through our ranks, mangling and tearing men to pieces… Our men were dead and dying right in the very midst of this grand havoc of battle."

~ Private Sam Watkins, CSA

The aftermath of the battle brought forth only greater chaos. Both Southern and Northern leadership crumbled.

While the Confederates had driven the Union off and were now in control of the coveted water supply, Braxton Bragg was deeply rattled by the loss of so many lives. In his report Bragg reflected:

“For the time engaged the severest and most desperately contested fighting within my knowledge.” [xv]

In dismay over their failing invasion of Kentucky, Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith began a retreat into Tennessee.

U. S. General Don Carlos Buell was replaced by Gen. William Rosecrans.

“[It] makes one feel sad to think of such men being sacrificed amid the horrors of the battle field; and if such a noble army as is now in the field had only all learned that all wars and fighting are wrong and freedom the inalienable right of all, these scenes would never have been and doubtless this country remained a united people.”

~ Letter written by Sophia Jones, a young Quaker [xvi]

ENDNOTES
[i] Harper’s Weekly, November 1, 1862
[ii] "For God and Country: The Role of Religion in the Civil War" An Online Chat With Author Michael Aubrecht http://www.civilwarhome.com/religionincivilwar.htm
[iii] Hibbs ,Dixie “ Bardstown: Hospitality, History and Bourbon,” Chap. 3, pages 75 -76.
[iv] McWhiney, Grady. “Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat,” Volume I 1969.
[v] Dawson, Sarah Morgan. “Confederate Girl's Diary,” page 32.
[vi] Hafendorfer, Kenneth A. “They Died By Twos and Tens” 1995 p. 553.
[vii] NPS records http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
[viii] Thompson, Orphan Brigade, p. 996.
[ix] Hafendorfer, Kenneth A. “They Died By Twos and Tens” 1995 p. 665.
[x] Letter from M. A. Harvey to his niece Eva, University of Notre Dame Rare Books and Special Collections http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/civil_war/letters/harvey-ma/
[xi] Noe, Kenneth W. “Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle,” 2001, p. 121.
[xii] Hafendorfer, Kenneth A. “They Died By Twos and Tens” 1995 p. 667.
[xiii] Johnson, Ella“ Grandma Remembers” 1928
[xiv] Historic Perryville Official Web Site http://www.perryville.net/
[xv] OR , Volume XVI/1, S22 Series I
[xvi] Letter written to Mary Bettle by Sophia Jones, University of Notre Dame Rare Books and Special Collections, http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/civil_war/letters/bettle/

Propaganda Proliferation

Being a shrewd and up-to-the-minute warrior, John Hunt Morgan knew the benefits of positive public relations. Utilizing both the press and broadside advertising, Morgan delivered the Confederate message to the people of the Commonwealth.

“AROUSE, KENTUCKIANS! Let the old men of Kentucky, and our noble-hearted women, arms their sons and their lovers for the fight! Better death in our sacred cause than a life of slavery!”
~ Broadside circulated by Morgan’s Men as they reached the Kentucky, August 22, 1862

In selecting the words, “Arouse, Kentuckians,” Morgan may have been referencing a Southern war poem “By Kentucky” which began,

“Arouse, Kentuckians, or my heart will break!”[i]

Morgan’s broadside was followed by a proclamation issued by Major General Edmond Kirby Smith who sought to mobilize the civilian population in support of the Confederacy:

“Kentuckians: The Army of the Confederate States has again entered your territory under my command.

Let no one make you believe we come as invaders, to coerce your will, or to
exercise control over your soil. Far from it. The principle we maintain is, that
Government derives it just power from the consent of the Governed.

I shall enforce the strictest discipline in order that the property of citizens & noncombatants may be protected. I shall be compelled to procure subsistence for my troops among you, and this shall be paid for.

Kentuckians: We come not as invaders, but liberators. We invoke the spirit of your resolutions of 1798. We come to arouse you from the lethargy which enshrouds your free thought and forebodes the political death of your state.

We come to test the truth of what we believe to be a foul aspersion, that
Kentuckians willingly join the attempt to subjugate and to deprive us of our property, our liberty and our dearest rights.

We come to strike off the chains which are riveted upon you. We call upon you to unite your arms & join with us in hurling back from our fair & sunny plains the Northern hordes who would deprive us of our liberty, that they may enjoy our substance.

Are we deceived? Can you treat us as enemies? Our hearts answer no”

While such language sounds over romanticized to our ears, it is important to note that poetry and folk ballads were primary means of spreading propaganda during the Civil War. Southern newspapers often published poetry as a form of patriotic propaganda. The author of the following “call to arms” poem was merely identified as “Boone” which was likely a pseudonym.

Kentucky Required to Yield Her Arms

Ho! will the despot trifle,
In dwellings of the free;
Kentuckians yield the rifle,
Kentuckians bend the knee!
With dastard fear of danger,
And trembling at the strife;
Kentucky, to the stranger,
Yield liberty for life!
Up! up! each gallant ranger,
With rifle and with knife!

The bastard and the traitor,
The wolfcub and the snake,
The robber, swindler, hater,
Are in your homes--awake!
Nor let the cunning foeman
Despoil your liberty;
Yield weapon up to no man,
While ye can strike and see,
Awake, each gallant yeoman,
If still ye would be free!

Aye, see to sight the rifle,
And smite with spear and knife,
Let no base cunning stifle
Each lesson of your life:
How won your gallant sires
The country which ye keep?
By soul, which still inspires
The soil on which ye weep!
Leap up! their spirit fires,
And rouse ye from your sleep!

"What!" cry the sires so famous,
In Orleans' ancient field,
"Will ye, our children, shame us,
And to the despot yield?
What! each brave lesson stifle
We left to give you life?
Let apish despots trifle
With home and child and wife?
And yield, O shame! the rifle,
And sheathe, O shame! the knife?"[ii]

Kentuckian J. R. Barrick personified the Commonwealth as a grieving war mother desperate for a champion to redeem her honor. Barrick also was most likely a pseudonym, possibly of a Confederate officer or West Point cadet who sought a witty nom de plume. Whether the selection of a pen name was made in modesty or for reasons of personal safety remains a mystery.

Kentucky, She Is Sold

A tear for "the dark and bloody ground,"
For the land of hills and caves;
Her Kentons, Boones, and her Shelbys sleep
Where the vandals tread their graves;
A sigh for the loss of her honored fame,
Dear won in the days of old;
Her ship is manned by a foreign crew,
For Kentucky, she is sold.

The bones of her sons lie bleaching on
The plains of Tippecanoe,
On the field of Raisin her blood was shed,
As free as the summer's dew;
In Mexico her McRee and Clay
Were first of the brave and bold--
A change has been in her bosom wrought,
For Kentucky, she is sold.

Pride of the free, was that noble State,
And her banner still were so,
Had the iron heel of the despot not
Her prowess sunk so low;
Her valleys once were the freeman's home,
Her valor unbought with gold,
But now the pride of her life is fled,
For Kentucky, she is sold.

Her brave would once have scorned to wear
The yoke that crushes her now,
And the tyrant grasp, and the vandal tread,
Would sullen have made her brow;
Her spirit yet will be wakened up,
And her saddened fate be told,
Her gallant sons to the world yet prove
That Kentucky is not sold.[iii]

Southern war poetry gave full reign to emotions of fear, hatred, sympathy, patriotism, and consumerism.

The Cotton-Burners' Hymn.

"On yesterday, all the cotton in Memphis, and throughout the country,
was burned. Probably not less than 300,000 bales have been burned in the
last three days, in West Tennessee and North Mississippi."
--Memphis Appeal.

I.

Lo! where Mississippi rolls
Oceanward its stream,
Upward mounting, folds on folds,
Flaming fire-tongues gleam;
'Tis the planters' grand oblation
On the altar of the nation;
'Tis a willing sacrifice--
Let the golden incense rise--
Pile the Cotton to the skies!
CHORUS--Lo! the sacrificial flame
Gilds the starry dome of night!
Nations! read the mute acclaim--
'Tis for liberty we fight!
Homes! Religion! Right!

II.

Never such a golden light
Lit the vaulted sky;
Never sacrifice as bright,
Rose to God on high:
Thousands oxen, what were they
To the offering we pay?
And the brilliant holocaust--
When the revolution's past--
In the nation's songs will last!
CHORUS-Lo! the sacrificial flame, etc.

III.

Though the night be dark above,
Broken though the shield--
Those who love us, those we love,
Bid us never yield:
Never! though our bravest bleed,
And the vultures on them feed;
Never! though the Serpents' race--
Hissing hate and vile disgrace--
By the million should menace!
CHORUS-Lo! the sacrificial flame, etc.

IV.

Pile the Cotton to the skies;
Lo! the Northmen gaze;
England! see our sacrifice--
See the Cotton blaze!
God of nations! now to Thee,
Southrons bend th' imploring knee;
'Tis our country's hour of need--
Hear the mothers intercede--
Hear the little children plead!
CHORUS-Lo! the sacrificial flame, etc.[iv]

Propaganda was not limited to use on the home front. In an effort to affect opinion abroad, the Confederate leadership employed the skills of European writers. The most influential of these writers may have been Swiss- born Henry Hotze. Hotze produced a weekly journal entitled “The Index,” which promoted the Confederate cause. While “The Index” had a small circulation of about 2,000 copies, its readership extended throughout England, Ireland, and France. It is known that members of the British government read “The Index” and that smuggled copies were found in Northern states.[v] Regardless of the reach of the message, the Confederate pens could not sway Europeans to lift their swords.

ENDNOTES
[i] Ellinger, Esther Parker. “ The Southern War Poetry of the Civil War,” 1918
[ii] Wharton, Henry Marvin. “ War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, 1861 -1865,” 1904
[iii] Simms, William Gilmore. “War Poetry of the South” 1867
[iv] Wharton, Henry Marvin. “ War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, 1861 -1865,” 1904
[v] Oates, Stephen B. "Henry Hotze: Confederate Agent Abroad." Historian 27,February 1965, pages 131-54.

Partisan Rangers

April 21, 1862

Jefferson Davis approved an act to authorize commissioned officers to form bands of Partisan Rangers.

As these groups practiced “hit and run” guerilla warfare, one could envision the roving bands of Partisan Rangers as somewhat akin to the Privateers sanctioned by the British Throne to harass the Spanish Armada during the 16th Century.

Stealthy bands of Partisan Rangers began to pillage areas in which Union troops sought to obtain food and horses. Emboldened by their success, they looted supply depots delightedly distributing captured stores of Federal food and materials to thankful Confederate troops. Occasionally, Partisan Rangers harassed or directly engaged the Union troops. When the action grew too dangerous, the Partisan Rangers mysteriously disappeared into the countryside with the aide of sympathetic civilians. Thus, Partisan Rangers proved an asset to the Confederacy as they diverted the attention and manpower of Union troops from their primary goal of fighting Confederate troops.

John Hunt Morgan, an experienced Mexican War veteran who had organized the escape of the Lexington Rifles from Kentucky, seized the opportunity to regroup his men and organize them into a Partisan Ranger band. Morgan much preferred the freedom of leading his own missions to the stifling boredom of taking his orders from superiors.

“The raiders who joined John Hunt Morgan in Kentucky at the beginning of the war belonged to the aristocracy. They descended from planters who had originally settled Virginia and North Carolina and now had created a new nobility in the Bluegrass state. Four years before the war they became known as the Lexington Rifles. At the start of the war they were sworn into the Confederate army as the First Kentucky Cavalry.” [i]

Meanwhile, average soldiers of both North and South were painfully discovering that the reality of war was far from the excitement promised by propaganda campaigns and veteran’s tales. Soldier's life was far from the romantic adventure many young volunteers had expected. When they weren't marching along dusty roads, sloughing through ankle-deep mud, suffering in sweltering heat of summer, or freezing in the snow storms of winter, they endured the tedium of camp life: continuous drilling, digging ditches, cutting wood, building shelter, and eternally foraging for sufficient food.

“April 1862, Cumberland River
Where is all that romance in camp life that you read about in so many novels...But where, where, is the romance, the pleasure of war? You can put it all in your eye."
~ Stephen Keyes Fletcher, 33rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry[ii]

July 8, 1862

John Hunt Morgan launched his first raid into Kentucky leaving a wake of burnt railroad trestles, cut telegraph wires, and ruined Union supplies.

“Morgan’s men believed in something that they risked their lives for. It was a heritage of courage, dedication, perseverance, self-sacrifice, and love of country, as they saw it.”
~ Sam Flora, President of the Morgan’s Men Association

Tales of Morgan’s adherence to the code of chivalry and gallant conduct during the raids captured the imagination of the Southern citizenry. Morgan enhanced the myth himself in letters to his friends.

“I was amused at the Yankee ladies. Poor things, they were going down to Nashville to see their friends. They crowded round me crying: ‘Oh, Capt. Morgan what are you going to do with our trunks? What are you going to do with us?’ I give you my word Mrs. French – the trunks came first. They doubtless had in them some of those three story Yankee Bonnets to astonish Nashville with.

One pretty girl – she had been only lately married – her husband was with her – a Federal officer in poor health – this pretty girl grasped my hand in both her’s [sic] sobbing, ‘Oh, Capt. Morgan what will you do with my husband? I could not resist such a sweet face. I said, ‘Madame, I do not know whether I am doing you a kindness or not – but if you desire it – your husband shall accompany you home.’ She kissed my hand and thanked me a thousand times – my hand Mrs. French, that had not been washed for two days – and was as black as it could be besides with firing that train.” [iii]

Newspapers across the county carried tales of Morgan’s exploits. Notoriety pleased Morgan who envisioned himself as a Southern champion.

“When the Civil War broke, Morgan and his ‘terrible men’ were ready. Morgan was a regular officer, and took orders (when he felt like it) from his superiors, but the North persisted in regarding him as an irregular, capable of every atrocity from horse-stealing to killing the wounded. Biographer Swiggett says Morgan obeyed the rules of civilized warfare, but admits his men were fond of ambushing Federal pickets, of suddenly displaying a flag of truce to get themselves out of a tight corner. Braxton [Bragg] West Pointer, who was Morgan's nominal commander, disliked him, disapproved of his aims and methods. But Morgan's gallantry and success in raiding through Kentucky and Ohio soon made him a bogeyman to the North, a hero to the South. One of his tricks was to capture a telegraph station, send fake messages to foil the enemy. Once he wired to his disgruntled pursuer: "Good morning, Jerry! This telegraph is a great institution. You should destroy it as it keeps me too well posted.”[iv]

The heat of the summer was playing havoc with both armies. One of Morgan’s great assets was having men within the unit who personally knew the land, the waterways, and the location of hidden springs.

"During the summer of 1862, Kentucky was going through one of its worst droughts ever. Both armies were looking for water sources.”[v]

July 16, 1862

"Lexington and Frankfurt ... are garrisoned with Home Guard. The bridges between Cincinnati and Lexington have been destroyed. The whole country can be secured and 25,000 to 30,000 men with join you at once.”
~ John Hunt Morgan’s Telegraph Message to General Edmond Kirby Smith

John Hunt Morgan reported to General Edmond Kirby Smith that 25,000 to 30,000 Kentuckians were prepared to join the Confederate forces.[vi] This report appears to have been one of Morgan’s many exaggerations to his superiors. The Achilles’ heel of Morgan’s leadership was his own unrestrained personality. His egotism, over confidence, and shameless ambitions would lead the Kentucky Cavalry to disaster time and time again.

Disaster in battle was becoming well known throughout the Confederacy. Southern ministers began to refer to casualties and defeats as a requisite “Baptism in Blood.”

"All nations which come into existence at this late period of the world must be born amid the storm of revolution and must win their way to a place in history through the baptism of blood."
~ Episcopal Bishop Stephen Elliot

July 22, 1862

The Dix-Hill Cartel came into effect. The Union and Confederate governments reached agreement in regard to the exchange prisoners by modeling a plan after an earlier cartel arrangement used between the United States and Great Britain in the War of 1812. Their cartel agreement established a scale of equivalents to manage the exchange of military officers and enlisted personnel. For example, a naval captain or a colonel in the army would exchange for fifteen privates or common seamen, while personnel of equal ranks would transfer man for man.

Meanwhile, John Hunt Morgan campagianed his superiors for a full scale invasion of Kentucky, promising the support of the citizenry and thousands of eager volunteers.

“The feeling in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky is represented by Forrest and Morgan to have become intensely hostile to the enemy, and nothing is wanted but arms and support to bring the people into our ranks, for they have found that neutrality has afforded them no protection.”
~ General Bragg, August 1, 1862

August, 1862

John Hunt Morgan began a second raid into Kentucky.

“I, in my justifiable attacks on Federal troops and Federal property, have always respected private property and persons of union men. I do hereby declare that, to protect Southern citizens and their rights, I will henceforth put the law of retaliation into full force, and act upon it with vigor. For every dollar exacted from my fellow-citizens, I will have two from all men of known Union sentiments, and will make their persons and property responsible for its payment. God knows it was my earnest wish to have conducted this war according to the dictates of my heart, and consonant to those feelings which actuate every honorable mind, but forced by the vindictive and iniquitous proceedings of our Northern foes to follow their example in order to induce them to return to humane conduct, I will for the future imitate them in their exactions, retaliate upon them and theirs the cruelties and oppressions with which my friends are visited, and continue this course until our enemies consent to make war according to the law of nations.”
~John Hunt Morgan, The Vidette, August 19, 1862

August 14, 1862

Heeding Morgan, Confederate Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith invaded Kentucky.

“The extraordinary sight of 1,000 cavalrymen as they roared into tiny Scottsville, Kentucky was enough to convince young Isaac N. Hunt to join Morgan’s Raiders. After an impassioned speech by Gen. John Hunt Morgan at the Scottsville Hotel, Hunt joined up. Convinced of the sincerity of Morgan’s message that the men of Kentucky should join the Confederate cause, Hunt left his family home and rode off. As a private in Company C, 3rd Kentucky Cavalry, the teenager fought for more than one year until he was captured and sent to Camp Douglas.” [vii]

“Bragg was a poor choice [to command the Army of Tennessee], said critics of [Jefferson] Davis. Davis sent him to the Army of Tennessee because he was an old friend, and the President had faith in his abilities. He was no commander, even though he seems to have been a good organizer. But Bragg, to Davis’ way of thinking, was the best man he had for the Tennessee assignment.”[viii]

August 16, 1862

Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin resigned from office and was replaced by James F. Robinson. Robinson served out the remainder of Magoffin's term of office.

Kentucky swarmed with invading soldiers.

“Then there were days when a cluster of tents was pitched in a nearby field, and everyone moved heaven and earth to take these gray clad men all the food and clothing that could possibly be spared from our own scanty store, for these were ‘our boys’; our own ‘Johnny Rebs,’ and we'd all gladly go hungry and cold to aid them. We were ready to live and die for Dixie.”
~ Ella Johnson[ix]

“They are having a stampede in Kentucky. Please look into it.”
~ Telegraph from President Abraham Lincoln to Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck

August 29 - 30, 1862

The Battle of Richmond, Kentucky was fought in three phases. Union forces under General William B. Nelson suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Confederate General Edmond Kirby Smith and were forced to retreat in chaos and disarray. Approximately 4,000 of the retreating men were taken prisoner.[x]

“Of the 6,500 Union troops who went into battle, some 4,300 were taken prisoner and more than 1,000 were either killed or wounded. The Confederates, who were some 6,600 strong, lost only 128 men -- 118 who were killed and 10 listed as missing in action.

The battle was fought in three phases -- at Kingston, Duncannon Lane and in the Richmond Cemetery -- during a time when Madison County was in the throes of a severe drought. The temperature was some 96-100 degrees in the shade as crops withered in the fields and livestock were short on water all along Old State Road from the southern border of Madison County at Big Hill to the county seat in Richmond.”[xi].

The battle showcased the strength of the Confederate cavalry and opened a pathway north for the Confederate invasion of Kentucky. John Hunt Morgan and his Raiders envisioned this newly opened path as their gateway to greater glory and acclaim.

ENDNOTES
[i] Thomas, Edison H. "John Hunt Morgan and his Raiders,” Chap. 1 and 2, 2-3, 19-20.
[ii] Fletcher, Stephen Keyes. "The Civil War Journal of Stephen Keyes Fletcher," ed. Perry McCandless, Indiana Magazine of History 54, no. 2 ,June 1958, p.161.
[iii] Ramage, James A., “Rebel Raider” chap. 8, p.86
[iv] Swiggett, Howard, Bobbs, Merrill. “Raider and Terrible Men” Time, August 20, 1934.
[v] Bush, Bryan S. “The Civil War Battles of the Western Theatre” 1998, p. 37.
[vi] Ramage, James A. “Rebel Raider” chap. 11, p. 119.
[vii] Pucci, Kelly “Camp Douglas: Chicago’s Civil War Prison,” 2007 p.84.
[viii] Vandiver, Frank E. “Rebel Brass,” 1956.
[ix] Johnson, Ella. “Grandma Remembers,” 1928.
[x] CWSAC Battle Summaries: Richmond, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ky007.htm
[xi] The Battle of Richmond Association. “A Brief History of the Battle: A great Confederate victory” http://www.battleofrichmond.org/HistoryBattle.htm