Wrapping up loose ends related to Morgan’s Men:

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.”