Whatever
happened to the other six members of the Confederate warfighting gang known as
Morgan’s Raiders who escaped from the Ohio State Penitentiary in November 1863
along with their illustrious leader, Gen. John Hunt Morgan?
1
and 2. Traveling
together, Capt. Ralph Sheldon (shown above) and Capt. Samuel Burk Taylor (shown below) were
captured four days later in Taylor’s hometown of Louisville, Ky. Taylor was a
nephew of former U.S. President Zachary Taylor, the 12th U.S. president, who served
in the White House from 1849 until his death in 1850.
(Zachary
Taylor, who was raised in Louisville, became a career officer in the U.S. Army,
rising to the rank of major general. He was deemed a national hero after his
victories in the Mexican-American War. He died 16 months into his term from a rare
stomach disease.)
Ralph Sheldon and Samuel
Taylor and were taken back into custody and relocated to the
Union’s Fort Delaware prison camp on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River
across from Delaware City, below Wilmington, Del. They were released on May 21,
1865.
Taylor
died in 1867 at age 26. One historian remarked: “Prison broke his spirit and
his body.”
Sheldon
returned to his hometown of Bardstown, Ky., where he died in 1895 at age 66.
3.
Capt. Lorenzo Dow (L.D.) Hockersmith (shown below) made his way back to his hometown of Madisonville, Ky., but little information is
available about his life after he escaped from the penitentiary.
His home in
Madisonville is a recognized state historic site by the Kentucky Historical
Society.
4. There was also a Capt. Magee
listed as an escapee, but sources disagree about his first name. It may have
been Augustus. An internet search was unable to detect any information about him.
5.
Capt. Jacob Coffman “Jake” Bennett,
who was born in McLean County, Ky., returned to the Confederate army and formed
an independent company, based in present-day Clay County, Tenn.
He
raided Owensboro and other towns in western Kentucky, and Bennett is thought to
have fought in the last battle of the Civil War in Tennessee, around May 1,
1865, at Indian Graves in Clay County.
In
1872, Bennett was elected to the first of three terms as Sheriff of Clay
County. Somewhat ironic, Bennett was working as a security guard at the
Tennessee State Prison in Nashville, when he died in 1904 at age 64.
Local
newspaper interviews with Bennett after the war routinely described him as a
“swashbuckling hero” for the Southern cause.
One romantic account from 1898
noted that Bennett “received 26 bullet holes in his body and had 11 horses
killed under him in battle. He was in prison 13 times but always succeeded in
making his escape.”
In
1904, about six months before Bennett died, the Nashville Banner painted
Bennett as a heroic figure of the Confederacy. The article noted that Bennett, as
one of Morgan’s Men, was as “brave and as daring as any of that valiant band.”
6.
Capt. Thomas Henry Hines
of Butler County, Ky., accompanied Gen. John Hunt Morgan to the Confederate
capitol in Richmond in
January 1864, where he also met with President Jefferson Davis.
Hines (shown below) outlined an elaborate plan that involved raiding the Union camps that were
holding Confederate prisoners to set the Rebel soldiers free while also instilling
mass panic by setting fires in large northern cities.
He
received Davis’ OK to proceed with implementation, using a group of about 60 secret
agents based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
One
key member of that group was George “Lightning” Ellsworth, a Canadian native,
who formerly served as the deceptive telegraph operator with the original Morgan’s
Raiders unit.
The
movement to be orchestrated by Hines was known as the “Northwest Conspiracy.”
Hines attempted twice to approach the Union’s Camp Douglas in Chicago where
hundreds of enlisted Confederate soldiers from Morgan’s Raiders were being
detained, but both of these efforts fizzled out due to broken promises by
co-conspirators known as the Copperheads.
Hines
learned the hard way that alliances he formed with the Copperheads’ leadership
were hollow.
The Copperheads was a loose confederation of Democrats that was
active chiefly in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, representing families with
Southern roots and agrarian interests who were generally opposed to
emancipation.
They were fearful it would bring an influx of freed Southern
blacks into the region.
When
the going got tough, the Copperheads back pedaled.
A
former Congressman from Ohio, Clement Laird Vallandigham was “Supreme Commander”
of the Copperheads faction of
anti-war Democrats.
After
the war, Hines moved to Bowling Green, Ky., in 1867 and began to practice law.
He was elected to the
Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1878 and served as its chief justice from 1884-86.
He left the court and moved his law firm to Frankfort, Ky., the state capital. Hines
died in 1898 at age 59.
Historian
Edward M. Coffman said Hines achieved great success as “a dashing officer and
guerrilla fighter in Morgan’s cavalry.”
But
his claim to fame remains that he was the man who engineered the Civil War’s
most dramatic jailbreak.
Also
deserving of mention is Col. Richard Curd “Dick” Morgan of Lexington, Ky., a
younger brother of Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
Dick Morgan was aide-de-camp. He was
with the group of Morgan’s Raiders who surrendered near Salineville, Ohio, on July
26, 1863, and among the 70 officers who were imprisoned at the Ohio State Penitentiary.
Dick
Morgan (shown below) was left behind, excluded from the group who would escape on Nov. 27,
1863.
Another
key officer who remained in the Ohio prison was Morgan’s brother-in-law, Col.
Basil Wilson Duke, who hailed from Scott County, Ky., north of Lexington. He
was second-in-command with Morgan’s Raiders.
Following
the great escape, arrangements were made to transfer Morgan’s Men from Ohio to
the Union’s military prison at Fort Delaware in March 1864.
From here, Dick
Morgan and Basil Duke (and perhaps others) were released in August 1864, as
part of a prisoner exchange.
After
the war, Dick Morgan worked for the railroads as a civil engineer and was
involved in the Morgans’ family businesses in Lexington. He died in 1918 at age
82.
Basil
Duke (shown below) was college educated. He began practicing law in St. Louis, Mo., in 1858
and helped organize the initial forays for Missouri’s secession from the union.
Duke married Henrietta Hunt Morgan in 1861 and became a valuable member of
Morgan’s Raiders calvary unit within the Confederate army.
After
Gen. John Hunt Morgan was killed on Sept. 4, 1864, at Greeneville, Tenn., Basil
Duke stepped in to take command of the calvary unit and was advanced to the
rank of general.
In
April 1865, upon hearing of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox (Va.)
Court House, Gen. Duke hurried his command to Charlotte, N.C., and joined Confederate
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army.
While
Gen. Johnston negotiated a surrender with Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, on
April 26, 1865, at the Bennett Place farmhouse in Orange County, N.C., near
present-day Durham, Gen. Duke had been dispatched to Richmond.
Sherman and Johnston
He
was assigned to help escort and protect Confederate President Jefferson Davis and
his cabinet members during their flight from the Confederate capital at
Richmond to Danville, Va., and on through the Carolinas.
Duke
participated in Davis’ final war council in Abbeville, S.C., on May 2, 1865.
Others attending included Secretary of War Gen. John Cabell Breckinridge, Gen.
Braxton Bragg and Gen. Samuel Wragg Ferguson.
They unanimously advised Davis that
“the cause was lost and further military resistance was futile, effectively
marking the end of the Confederate government.”
At
this point, Breckenridge issued an order for the Confederate units to disband.
Duke
surrendered to Union officials on May 10, 1865, in Washington, within Wilkes
County Ga., about 60 miles south of Abbeville.
On
the same day, Jefferson Davis (shown below) was apprehended by Union cavalrymen under the command of
Lt. Col. Benjamin D. Pritchard in south-central Georgia, near Irwinville within
Irwin County.
He was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va., located at the
southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula.
Davis
was released on bail in 1867, but it was not until Dec. 25, 1868, that U.S.
President Andrew Johnson issued a full pardon and amnesty, ending all legal
proceedings against Davis.
He
established a permanent residence near Biloxi, Miss., in 1877, and died in
1889, at age 81.
After
the war, Basil Duke went back to Kentucky and made his home in Louisville, resuming
his law practice. His primary client was the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad, for whom he served as chief counsel and lobbyist, despite the fact
that the L&N was a frequent victim of Morgan’s Raiders during the war.
Later,
Duke served as a district commonwealth attorney from 1875-80. He pursued an
interest in writing the history of the Civil War, authoring numerous magazine
articles and two books.
He
had been wounded twice at the Battle of Shiloh, fought April 6-7, 1862, and was
instrumental in having the Shiloh battleground in Hardin County, Tenn. (near
the county seat of Savannah), designated as a National Military Park in 1894.
Duke
was appointed as the park’s commissioner in 1904 by President Theodore
Roosevelt. Duke died in 1916 at age 78.
Gen Burnside encounters Morgan’s Raiders
The
Ohio State Penitentiary where Gen. John Hunt Morgan and his officers were
imprisoned in 1863 came under the jurisdiction of Union Gen. Ambrose E.
Burnside, who was serving as the Union’s commander of the military district
known as The Department of the Ohio, with headquarters in Cincinnati.
His
territory consisted of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, part of
Kentucky east of the Tennessee River and western Virginia.
Burnside
is remembered as the commanding officer at the siege of Fort Macon, which
resulted in the Confederate surrender of the garrison on Bogue Banks in
Carteret County, N.C., on April 26, 1862.
His
performance in North Carolina elevated his status as a military leader…but he
wilted under the weight of additional responsibilities.
President
Abraham Lincoln had assigned Gen. Burnside to The Department of the Ohio post
following his failure at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., the disastrous “Mud
March” Union defeat that occurred Dec. 11-15, 1862.
Shortly thereafter,
Burnside was replaced as commander of the Army of the Potomac by Gen. Joseph
“Fighting Joe” Hooker.
Lincoln
was hopeful that Burnside’s transfer to command “a quieter area would allow him
to regain his footing.”
Morgan’s escape was another embarrassing black mark on
Burnside’s military resume.
After several more blunders as a warfighter,
Burnside was placed on extended leave by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and was never
recalled to duty.
Burnside
finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865, after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox (Va.) Court House.
After
his resignation, Burnside was employed as a railroad executive and became
president of Rhode Island Locomotive Works in Providence, a company that built
locomotives for major railroads.
He
entered politics as a Republican in 1866 and was elected Rhode Island’s
governor. He served three one-year terms. In 1871, the National Rifle
Association of America chose Burnside as its first president.
In
1874, Burnside was elected as a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island. He served continuously
until his death due to heart failure in 1881, at age 57.
Burnside
was noted for his unusual beard, joining strips of hair in front of his ears to
his mustache but with the chin clean-shaven; the word “burnsides” was coined to
describe this style.
The syllables were later reversed to create the term “sideburns.”
.jpg)
