[
92]
H. Morgan, already mentioned.
1 The raid about to be considered had manifold objects in behalf of the
Confederacy, namely, to prepare the way for
General Buckner, who was in
East Tennessee on the borders of
Kentucky, to dash into that State and seize
Louisville, and, with
Morgan, capture and plunder
Cincinnati; to form a nucleus for an armed counter-revolution in the
Northwest, where the “Knights of the
Golden Circle,” and the “Sons of Liberty,” of the
Peace Faction, were numerous, and to prevent re-enforcements from being sent from that region to
Meade.
Also for the purpose of plunder for himself and followers.
So early as the middle of June, a pioneer party of about eighty Kentuckians crossed the
Ohio into
Indiana, at
Leavenworth, to test the temper of the people.
They swept through two or three counties in that region of the
State, but were captured
when making their way back, by the Leavenworth Home Guards, under
Major Clendenin, and the steamer
Izetta.
Morgan started northward a little later,
with thirty-five hundred well-mounted men and six guns.
He crossed the swollen
Cumberland River at
Burksville,
after some opposition from
General Jacobs's cavalry,
2 and pushed rapidly on to
Columbia, where he was encountered
and kept in check for three hours by one hundred and fifty of
Wolford's cavalry, under
Captain Carter, who was killed in the affray.
After partly sacking the town, the raiders proceeded to destroy a bridge over the
Green River, at Tebb's Bend, where they were confronted
by two hundred
Michigan troops, under
Colonel Moore, and, after a desperate fight of several hours, were repulsed with a loss of more than two hundred killed and wounded.
Moore was intrenched, and lost only six killed and twenty-three wounded.
3
