Introduction
John Hunt Morgan was a popular Confederate general and cavalry officer during the Civil War. He is most remembered for his Morgan’s Raid wherein he led several hundred men on a more-than thousand mile journey from the South into Kentucky and as far as southern Ohio, which is the farthest point reached by any Confederate group in the north during this war (Dupuy, Johnson and Bongard, 1992, 525). He sowed terror and fear in the hearts of ordinary people from Indiana and Ohio (Boyer, 1912, 164-165). This short paper will examine General Morgan’s escape from the Ohio Penitentiary in 1863, and provide insights as to how he was able to make this escape despite the presence of the Union soldiers who were his captors then.
Backgrounder
General John Hunt Morgan slowly became the “terror” of Kentucky and Ohio. It is said that President Lincoln kept on receiving pleas for help from the various politicians in these two states. The July 25 issue of Harper’s Weekly (1863, 23) states:
“The raid of the rebel Morgan into Indiana, which he seems to be pursuing with great boldness, has thoroughly aroused the people of that state and of Ohio to a sense of their danger. On the 13th, General Burnside declared Martial Law in Cincinnati and in Covington and Newport on the Kentucky side. All business is suspended until further orders, and all citizens are required to organize in accordance with the directions of the state and of municipal authorities. There is nothing definite as to Morgan’s whereabouts, but it is supposed that he will endeavor to move around the city of Cincinnati and cross the river between there and Maysville. The militia is concentrating, in obedience to the order of Governor Tod”. What this write up implies is that the perception of the public with respect to General Morgan is such that he is a master tactician and a clever strategist, as he has been able to penetrate the northern states which are known to be part of or on the side of the Union.
In the official magazine of the Civil War Society, it is mentioned that Morgan, while in command of 900 men, was able to sweep through Kentucky while pursuing the rear section of the troops of Major General Don Carlos Buell’s army. Morgan was then able to capture 1200 Union soldiers during this time, but he paroled them thereafter(North and South, 1863, 70). This news item presents quite a softer side to the general – while he was able to capture such a huge number of Union soldiers, he also let them go thereafter.
Capture or Surrender?
There are varying accounts of how General Morgan came to be the captive of the Union soldiers. One account in the website of Civilian Talk states that in July of 1863, Morgan was almost run to the ground by the forces of General Holson, and so Morgan and about 200 of his men surrendered near the Pennsylvania border of Ohio. Morgan and his men were first taken to the Cincinnati City Jail, and then were finally transferred to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. In the website of Ohio History and in the online version of the Richmond Times Dispatch of 1863, it is mentioned that Morgan was actually captured in a standoff during the Battle of Buffington Island, wherein Morgan was unable to proceed to Buffington Island as he had been surrounded by Union troops. It is estimated that around 800 to 1000 of Morgan’s men were captured and that around 300 had escaped across the Ohio River. The Union captors then brought Morgan and his men to Columbus where they were placed in the Camp Chase Confederate Prison Camp, with Morgan and several of his close aids being brought finally to the Ohio Penitentiary on October 1, 1863. Thus these two differing accounts make a reader wonder if Morgan was actually captured, or by himself voluntarily surrendered to the Union forces.
The Great Escape
Once more there are varying accounts of Morgan’s escape from the Ohio Penitentiary. The website of Ohio History makes mention of the fact that the escape (from the actual tunneling to the escape itself) took about six weeks. The idea for escaping was said to be proposed by Captain Hines, one of Morgan’s aides captured along with him. Hines first suspected there was an airshaft between floors when he noticed that certain portions of the floors were always dry. This was despite the surrounding areas always being moist (Thomas, 1985, 87). Morgan and his men tunneled into an airshaft built inside the main block of cells. They then crawled into the airshaft and out onto the prison yard, climbing down a prison wall with the aid of a rope made from prison uniforms. In the website of Civilian Talk, the digging was done within 20 nights, with the last four nights spent digging across a four-foot thick granite wall which made up the main outer wall of the prison.
In the 1863 edition of the Ohio State journal, an account of the prison set up and how the escape was conducted is stated. According to this account, General Morgan, and his captains Taylor, Bennett, Hockersmith, Hines, Magee, and Sheldon were housed in the same wing, except that Morgan was housed in the second floor of the cell block, and all the other men were in the first floor. The airshaft ran between floors, and was intended to provide ventilation to the cells and to keep the inside of the cells from becoming too damp. Thus General Morgan dug a hole from the corner of his cell (under his bedstead) to the airshaft, while the other men dug their own holes from the first floor onto the airshaft. The airshaft measured 7 feet by 4.5 feet, enough for men to crawl into. Apparently the airshaft was surrounded only by a thin layer of brick and mortar that could easily be broken or removed even with the use of one’s feet. When Morgan and his men moved to the end of the airshaft, they removed the foundation stones about four feet and thickness, and initially met with the obstacle of 20,000 bushels of coal leaning against the same wall. They simply moved back by about 25 feet, and tried to make another hole. This hole then led to the southeast gate of the prison on the second floor, and when the actual escape pushed through, the captives were able to climb down through the use of a rope made out of cotton or linen textiles which were the beddings of the captives themselves (Jones, 2004, 272).
Upon exiting the penitentiary, it is mentioned in the website of Ohio History that General Morgan had money to buy train tickets. The money was smuggled to him by his sister who placed the money inside a Bible given to him (Rue, 1911, 368). The men had noted in a newspaper that there was a train leaving Columbus at one o’clock in the morning. This then became the basis for the actual time of their escape. He was able to purchase train tickets to Cincinnati. The account in the website of Civilian Talk states that Morgan bought train tickets at the Little Miami Railroad station in Columbus, and then rode on a train going to Cincinnati. He found himself making small talk with a Union officer while aboard the train, and the Union officer failed to recognize him and Captain Hines, who was with him. The duo then jumped from the train in the outskirts of Cincinnati to avoid being recognized at the train station. They bribed a Black man into helping them cross the Ohio River on a small boat (Edison, 1985, 87-89).
Conclusion
The daring General John Hunt Morgan did not hesitate to plan and execute an escape in order to return to his Confederate troops and to resume his defense of the Confederacy. In this respect, one could see that he was a determined soldier who wished to return to his “normal” chores and duties. Together with his closest aides, he was able to outsmart his Union captors using only his body and two simple kitchen knives. He will be remembered in history as one who dared go beyond what was required of him (although he defied orders in so doing), and achieve more than what was asked of him. He devoted his entire life to the Confederacy, and was an individual who was extremely loyal to it. He could have stayed in the northern states if he wanted to, but simply worked towards returning to his beloved South. Even if he dared disobey his superiors, he was only acting for the benefit of the Confederacy. He was feared by those in the states he raided; thus he deserves the respect accorded to great men.
Works Cited
Boyer, Margrette. (1912). “Morgan’s Raid in Indiana”. Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 8, Issue 4, pp. 149-165.
Civilian Talk. (2012). “The Escape of John Hunt Morgan”. Web. http://www.civiliantalk.com/threads/the-escape-of-john-hunt-morgan.3787/
Dupuy, Trevor, Johnson, Curt and Bongard, David. (1992). “Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography”. NY: Castle Books.
Harper’s Weekly. (1863). (Write up on the exploits of General John Hunt Morgan).
Jones, Wilmer. (2004). “Generals in Blue and Gray: Davis’s Generals”. Westport, CT: Praeger’s Publishers.
North and South. (1863). General John Hunt Morgan. The Civil War Society, Volume 11, Number 1.
Rue, George. (1911). “Celebration of the Surrender of General John H. Morgan”. Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Vol. 20, pp. 368-377.
The Ohio State Journal. (1863). General John Hunt Morgan. November 30, 1863 edition.
The Richmond Times Dispatch. (1863). “Journal of Morgan’s Raid”, Web. http:// http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2006.05.0825%3Aarticle%3D14
Thomas, Edison. (1985). “John Hunt Morgan and His Raiders”. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.
