Marion County

General John Hunt  Morgan

Born June 1, 1825, in Huntsville, AL, John Hunt Morgan was the son of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan. The eldest of ten children, he moved to Lexington, KY at age six. Morgan was schooled locally before enrolling in Transylvania College in 1842. He spent only two years at Transylvania before being suspended. Morgan enlisted in a cavalry regiment following the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846. And after the war, Morgan returned home to Kentucky. Establishing himself as a hemp manufacturer, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce in 1848. In 1857, Morgan formed the pro-South "Lexington Rifles."

John Hunt Morgan and his Raiders came into Kentucky on numerous occasions; three of the most significant were First Kentucky Raid, The Christmas Raid and the Great Raid of 1863.

During these raids, General John Hunt Morgan's Raiders descended on Marion county, where Morgan's brother, Lt. Tom Morgan, was mortally wounded during the 1863 Battle of Lebanon . Tom was interred in a rose garden of (Sunnyside) Holly Hill, until 1867 when he and John Hunt Morgan were interred at Lexington Cemetery in the family plot. Morgan's raiders burned much of the town in retribution following Tom's death. On July 5, 1863, the clerk's office at Lebanon was burned by Morgan to destroy treason indictments against some of his men. All the county records were destroyed. Approximately twenty buildings were destroyed in the attack  Twenty-two Kentucky courthouses were burned during Civil War, nineteen in last fifteen months; twelve by Confederates, eight by guerrillas, two by Union accident. For a much more in-depth history of this raid, click here, General John Hunt Morgan's Raiders.

           

From a researcher...

"Benjamin Joseph Cooper was with John Hunt Morgan during the Civil War and
was captured and imprisoned in Chillicothe, OH. He was released after the
war with John Barr and walked back to Lebanon, weak and undernourished. He
was never well after that"

Today, while looking up a family member in another line (Evans from Nelson
County, also a Morgan's Raider)  I ran across this:

The Report of  Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, Civil War, Vol .I McDowell
p. 746
8th Kentucky Cavalry, Company K


#36 Cooper, B. J. Private Enlisted Sept 10,1862 in Springfield, KY
Note for 8th - This company was engaged in all the operations of General John H. Morgan's command and won high renown.


The John Barr mention in the story was with Co. G, 9th Reg. KY Cavalry.

Perhaps the family legend holds some truth!

Mary Beth....
 

 

 

              

Copyright © 2008 - Marion County Genealogy Project. All rights are reserved. This information belongs solely to the submitter but may be used by libraries, genealogical societies and personal researchers; however, commercial use of this information is strictly prohibited without prior permission of the owners and/or submitters of this material. When copied for non-commercial and personal use, this copyright notice should appear with the information.

If you have arrived at this site via a paid subscription database service, please know that the data contained on KYGenWeb Project sites has been donated by hardworking volunteers and has been providing genealogical data and information, as well as help for researchers, free of charge since 1996.