Ohio History Journal

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JOHN MORGAN RAID IN OHIO

JOHN MORGAN RAID IN OHIO.

 

 

[The following article was written by a veteran of the Civil War,

now a resident at the Dayton Soldiers' Home, and was printed recently

in the Lima Times Democrat, with notes and comments by the editor of

that paper. The history of the raid and the efforts to head off the bold

leader and his band of daredevils is believed to be authentic. - EDITOR.]

The Army of the Cumberland, under General Rosecrans

was preparing for the advance on the campaign which was

checked at Chickamauga, and culminated in the "Battle Above

the Clouds" at Lookout Mountain, and the victory at Missionary

Ridge. At the same time General Burnside's Army of the Ohio

was preparing for the advance into east Tennessee, thereby co-

operating with the Army of the Cumberland, under General

Rosecrans. All this was in the early summer of 1863.

Out of the night marched 10,000 Confederate horsemen,

under the leadership of that most distinguished raider, Gen. John

H. Morgan. These Confederate horsemen were headed to the

north, and passed between the armies of Rosecrans and Burn-

sides. The Union commanders made hasty preparations to meet

this movement of the enemy, and within a few hours 3,000 Union

horsemen, under command of Gen. E. H. Hobson, were in pur-

suit of Morgan's forces.

This was the famous so-called "Ohio raid," which extended

across the states of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, and terminated

at New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio. If Morgan had been

permitted to have gone one day longer he could have watered

his horses in Lake Erie. This bold dash of the Confederate

cavalry persistently pursued by the Union horsemen for a dis-

tance of about a thousand miles, reaching into and across the

northern states of Indiana and Ohio at the highest tide of the

Civil War, was one of the most interesting and certainly one of

the most picturesque events of the great war.

A particularly striking feature of this cavalry campaign was

that it was witnessed by more persons than any other military

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