Kentucky in The American Civil War - Morgan's First Raids

Morgan's First Raids

Almost immediately following the Confederate withdrawal from Kentucky, General John Hunt Morgan began the first of his raids into the Bluegrass state. In May 1862, Morgan's riders captured two Union trains at Cave City, but his apparent goal was to agitate Union forces; he paroled everyone aboard, returned one of the trains, and sent the occupants back to Louisville. This move accomplished little except to embolden Morgan for a more extensive raid in July.

On July 4, 1862, Morgan and his men left Knoxville, Tennessee and captured Tompkinsville five days later. After a brief stop in Glasgow, where many of Morgan's troops were from, they continued to Lebanon, capturing it on July 12. From there, the cavalry stopped in Harrodsburg and Georgetown, and upon seeing that Lexington was too heavily fortified, turned their attention to the town of Cynthiana. Morgan was again victorious at Cynthiana, but with Union reinforcements closing in on him, he paroled all the captured soldiers from the battle and rode to Paris.

On their exit from the Commonwealth, the cavalry picked up 50 recruits at Richmond. They also stopped in Somerset, where Morgan instructed his telegrapher, George "Lightning" Ellsworth to send taunting messages to General Jeremiah Boyle and publisher George Prentice. At the completion of his escape through the Commonwealth, Morgan claimed to have captured and paroled 1,200 enemy soldiers, recruited 300 men and acquired several hundred horses for his cavalry, used or destroyed supplies in seventeen towns, and incurred fewer than 100 casualties.