Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/37

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John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American 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.

After his capture and return from Ohio, Morgan was placed in command of Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. The men he was assigned were hardly comparable to those he had lost on his raid. Nevertheless, Morgan did what he could. However, he was surprised and shot while attempting to escape capture during a Union raid on Greeneville, Tennessee on September 4, 1864. (His men charged that he had been murdered to prevent a second escape from prison, but this seems unlikely.) Morgan was buried in Lexington shortly before the birth of his second child.