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John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was a dashing young Confederate general and cavalry officer in the Civil War. He led 2,460 troops in a daring raid, called Morgan's Raid, racing past Union lines into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in July 1863. This was the farthest north any uniformed Confederate troops penetrated during the war.
Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and quickly advanced through the ranks once the war began. He was named a brigadier general (his highest rank) on December 11, 1862, and received the thanks of the Confederate Congress for his raids on the supply lines of Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans in December 1862-January 1863.
Hoping to divert Union troops and resources after the twin Confederate defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, Morgan set off on his raid. After many skirmishes and battles during which he captured and paroled thousands of Union soldiers, Morgan's Raid almost ended on July 19, 1863 at Buffington Island in Ohio, when approximately 700 of his men were captured while trying to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. Most of the raiders captured that day spent the rest of the war in the infamous Camp Douglas prisoner of war camp in Chicago. Near Salineville, Ohio on July 26, 1863, exhausted, hungry and saddlesore, Morgan and his remaining troops were captured by Union forces.
On November 27, 1863 Morgan and several of his men escaped from the Ohio State Penetentiary - the only successful escape from the prison in the 19th century - and returned safely to the South. Although Morgan's Raid was breathlessly followed by the Northern and Southern press at the time and caused the Union leadership considerable consternation, most historians now consider it to have been little more than a showy but ultimately futile sidelight to the war.
After his return from Ohio, Morgan was placed in command of Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. However, he was surprised and killed while attempting to escape during a Union raid on Greeneville, Tennessee on September 4, 1864. He was buried in Lexington, Kentucky.
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