“The Civil War in Kentucky” is a 10-part series recently published in my Journey Log entitled “Surrounding Fort Knox, including Southern Indiana.” It deals primarily with the Central Kentucky Theater. I present it here as a series of individual blogs for my readers. Links to the previously published chapters will be provided at the end of each blog. Look for them on each Saturday morning! (A link to the book and its Table of Contents is found here.)
John Hunt Morgan is a man of legend in Kentucky’s Civil War mythology. As a cavalryman whose men dismounted to fight, he was best configuring them in smaller groups, 500 men or so, swiftly riding in, attacking, and quickly riding out. The words “Morgan is coming!” were terms of fear when no one knew where he would next show up.
Morgan would begin as a Confederate Captain and die before war’s end as a General. Ten thousand men would serve in his command over the years, a small Army of which he would use to invade Southern Indiana in 1863.
Morgan had entered the war on September 21, 1861, sneaking south with his loyal “Lexington Rifles” cavalrymen and wagons of guns, heading toward Confederate lines on the Green River at Munfordville. There, they mustered into the Confederate Army, Morgan as Cavalry Captain and Basil Duke as his First Lieutenant.
In December of 1861, they were sent out on their first mission. Burn the L & N Railroad trestle over Bacon Creek! [A tributary south of the Nolin River near what is now Bonnieville.] That accomplished in early December, Morgan settled down for the winter and commanded Bell’s Tavern in what is now called Park City.
Morgan would be active in Kentucky during Confederate Braxton Bragg’s 1862 invasion. His men would destroy the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike Bridge over the Salt River at Shepherdsville, protecting Bragg as he pivoted to Hodgenville, New Haven, and Bardstown.
After the Battle of Perryville on October 8, 1862, Morgan and his Second Kentucky Cavalry Regiment of 1,800 horsemen escaped Kentucky by riding through the region described in this book. They attacked wagon trains on the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike, and destroyed a troop train on the L & N Railroad in Elizabethtown. They then rode out on the road to Leitchfield. Escaping south, they crossed the Green River at Morgantown on October 22, 1861. But they would come back again to this region, and soon.
Union General Don Carlos Buell was relieved of command after the Battle of Perryville, facing investigation for his failure to battle Bragg. His successor, Union General William S. Rosecrans, took up the chase after Bragg’s Army which had escaped back into Central Tennessee.
On December 21, 1862, Bragg dispatched Morgan’s cavalry of 4,000 men to disrupt Rosecrans’ supply lines. Morgan was promoted to a General’s rank. The target? The two high trestles crossing creeks on the L & N Railroad as it rose up Muldraugh Hill towards Elizabethtown. The rebel cavalry was coming back!
On December 22, 1862, with instructions from General Bragg, Morgan’s Raiders again set off for Kentucky. The object, this time, was to further disrupt Union supply lines in Kentucky and thereby blunt Union General Rosecrans’ attack on Bragg’s Confederate Army at Murfreesboro.
This was Morgan’s famous 1862 “Christmas Raid,” launched after Bragg’s failed invasion of Kentucky. Morgan’s orders were to cut supply lines from the north to the Union Army invading the south. With 4,000 cavalrymen, Morgan left Alexandria, Tennessee, entering Kentucky on Christmas Eve. He was aiming to burn those two high L & N Railroad trestles built to support the tracks climbing Muldraugh Hill up to Elizabethtown.
Upon reaching Upton, Kentucky, Morgan sent troops back to Bacon’s Creek and burned down that railroad bridge again. Overcoming a defending force of 100 Union Soldiers and a blockhouse, the bridge was torched. Morgan then had his telegraph operator, “Lightning” Ellsworth, send out conflicting and confusing reports of Morgan’s whereabouts. Moving north to Nolin, Morgan attacked the blockhouse protecting the L & N Bridge over the Nolin River and burned that bridge too.
The 650 Union troops in Elizabethtown were quickly overcome by a show of force and cannon. On December 28, 1862, Morgan’s men maneuvered to the Muldraugh Hill railroad trestles, attacking the two blockhouses with artillery for two hours. The Union defenders succumbed. Both trestles were then burned and destroyed. The railroad supply line had been severed!
The raiders then headed down to the Rolling Fork River and crossing it, rode into Bardstown. But this time, they were followed. The future Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall Harlan, then a Union Colonel, caught up with Morgan’s rear guard at the Rolling Fork River and wounded Basil Duke before all the Confederates were able to cross the river and escape.
This was a daring raid, and exceptionally effective. But the industrial might of the North quickly became evident when, thirty days later, the railroad trestles had been repaired and rail service to Nashville restored.
After the Battle of Perryville, General Don Carlos Buell was relieved of command of the Union Department of the Cumberland. He was accused of not vigorously engaging General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Mississippi during its invasion of Kentucky in 1862. Bragg had escaped with his Army through the Cumberland Gap, re-establishing his stronghold in Middle Tennessee at Murfreesboro.
On October 24, 1862, Union General William Rosecrans replaced Buell as Commander of what would come to be called, the Army of the Cumberland. On December 31, 1862, after concentrating his forces in Nashville, Rosecrans moved his Army out to confront Bragg at the Battle of Stones River outside of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was a Union victory, but one with the highest casualty rate of any battle in the war. Confederate General Bragg withdrew with his renamed Army of Tennessee towards Chattanooga. Bragg was certainly now in a fighting frame of mind!
During this time, John Hunt Morgan had married Martha Ready in Murfreesboro. His first wife had died after a long illness just before he joined the Confederacy. On December 14, 1861, Confederate General Leonidas Polk slipped on his garments as an Episcopal Bishop [his pre-war occupation] and married the two in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In addition, four other Confederate Generals were present; Braxton Bragg, William J. Hardee, Benjamin F. Cheatham, and John C. Breckinridge [former Representative, Senator, and Vice President from Kentucky; later Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Breckinridge ran for United States President in 1860, losing to Lincoln but winning much of the vote in the southern states]. Confederate President Jefferson was in Murfreesboro reviewing troops on the weekend of the wedding and may also have attended.
Previous Chapters
Chapter 1: The History of the Civil War in Kentucky
Chapter 2: Surrounding Sherman and Grant
Chapter 3: William Tecumseh Sherman in Kentucky
Chapter 4: Civil War Camp Nevin and Nolin Station
Chapter 5: West Point, Sherman, and Fort Duffield
Chapter 6: The Confederate Invasion of Kentucky
Life and Landscapes Blog Site is at www.vanstockum.blog/lookin
www.facebook.com/reggievanstockum
www.instagram.com/reggievanstockum
www.vimeo.com/reggievanstockum
www.youtube.com@reggievanstockum1097
#reggievanstockum #reggiesrealm #kentuckyauthor #lifeandlandscapes #kentuckycivilwar
Copyright 2024 by RVS all rights reserved
Discover more from Life and Landscapes®
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
No Comments