Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 26: Hines' Invasion - Morgan's Raid, 1916

Forgetting the proverbial truth "still waters run deep," many Southerners regarded the superficial froth on the waves of political campaigning in Indiana as indicating a strong undercurrent of popular sentiment, sufficiently powerful if brought to the surface to swamp the Union ship of state and give hundreds of eager Indianians an opportunity to cast in their fortunes with the Confederacy. An attempt to test the issue, therefore, was planned by John Morgan, the dashing young cavalry officer attached to General Braxton Bragg's army near Chattanooga, where he had already won a name for singular originality in leading his small command upon expeditions of the most fearless daring.

Early summer of 1863 found mighty armies facing each other near the Tennessee and Georgia state line, fairly under the shadow of Lookout Mountain, in daily expectation of some decisive battle. With the inexhaustible resources of the North behind the Union army, Bragg felt that General Rosecrans could fall upon him with overwhelming force unless some bold stroke in the rear could prevent the sending of reinforcements. Burnside, to the east, was near enough to harass Buckner (restored by exchange to his old command), and possessed a strong resource in General Judah's division of 5,000 excellent cavalry. The Confederate problem was how to avert the imminent danger of a blow from these horsemen upon Bragg's flank, so, with the double object of preventing this and at the same time keeping Judah from joining Rosecrans, Morgan advised a raid across the Ohio into Indiana. Plaus- ibly he argued, from personal experience in Kentucky, that a charge into that state alone would be disastrously crushed out so quickly that its effects would not justify the hazardous risk of such an adventure; though he contended that a grand foray through Indiana would keep a large force of Northern troops for weeks upon his track.

General Bragg - always highly conservative - could not be brought to visualize the advantages of possible success to anything like the degree for which Morgan hoped. Knowing the perils of the proposed movement, fearing the effect upon his own remaining army which the isolation, and perhaps loss, of so valuable a cavalry force might have, Bragg would only consent that the dash should be made through Kentucky, expressly stipulating in his order that it should not extend beyond the Ohio. According, therefore, to the "History of Morgan's Raid," by General Basil W. Duke, the raid upon Indiana soil was made in positive disobedience of orders; and since, as his brother-in-law, confidential adviser and lieutenant, Duke had full access to Morgan's plans, the statement (quoted from his sprightly narrative, whose ability is admitted) leaves no room for doubt.

Its importance, after all, lies in its showing the disposition of Morgan to have his own way and to conduct his campaigns in a manner of peculiar independence, this being one secret of his fame and a magnet attracting to his standard so many of the adventurous Kentuckians who principally composed his command. With the recklessness born of desperation he determined to over-ride the orders of his superior, and conquer, if possible, the dangers encompassing the Confederate army in the Middle South by a sudden coup d'etat which would carry consternation and dismay into hitherto peaceful Indiana. Curiously enough, it was a parallel instance of disobedience or insubordination on the part of another, one of his own captains, which largely discounted the anticipated surprise of

During the month of May, 1863, Captain Thomas H. Hines, with a company of the Ninth Kentucky (Confederate) Cavalry, was detached from Morgan's division of Bragg's brigade in Tennessee, and sent to Kentucky to take charge of a camp for recruiting disabled horses, with further permission "to operate against the enemy north of the Cumberland River." This was not a bad piece of advance strategy on Morgan's part, the collection of extra mounts ahead of his arrival, had Hines only been content with his own part as head nurse to the convalescent steeds.

Restless and daring, however, he partook too much of Morgan's own temperament to remain quiet long, so interpreted in its widest possible scope his authority "north of the Cumberland," pushing across Kentucky with his relative handful of men until, on June 17, their eyes looked upon the Indiana hills of Perry County, and they watered their weary horses in the Ohio River between Rome and Derby, some eighteen miles east of Cannelton, at a point called Roberts' Landing.

By means of wood flats obtained through the assistance of Breckinridge County sympathizers, Hines' force of sixty-two men were ferried across as the first invaders of Perry County, thinking it would be huge sport to gallop around for awhile upon Northern soil and, incidentally, pick up as many fresh horses as might conveniently be found. Making arrangements with his ferrymen to meet him in about three days at a point agreed upon, Hines set forward into the interior, headed in the general direction of Paoli, Orange County, judiciously protecting his flanks as far as the limited extent of his force would allow by scouts thrown out.

With impudent assurance he represented himself and his gang as belonging to the Union army in the District of Kentucky, and claimed to be acting under orders from General Boyle, in search of deserters. Un- der this assumed character he found at first but little difficulty in procuring a number of excellent horses, leaving in their stead his own jaded, broken-down animals, coolly giving vouchers in due form upon the Federal Quartermaster at Indianapolis for the difference in value, which he accommodatingly fixed at a liberal and satisfactory figure. The arrogant disguise, however, was soon penetrated. Before his arrival on the 19th at Valeene, Orange County, the whole secret of his mission had become known, and the alarm, amazingly exaggerated as to the strength of his force and the damage wrought, was spreading with miraculous rapidity through Perry, Crawford, Orange, Washington, Harrison and contiguous counties.

Word reached Cannelton that four or five hundred guerillas had invaded the county and were plundering all through the upper valley of Deer Creek, where they were said to have burned the Hinton Meeting-House. This report was altogether a hoax, but the alertness of the Fifth Regiment of the Legion was demonstrated in their speedy pursuit of Hines. Colonel Charles Fournier was then in command (succeeding Colonel Charles H. Mason, who had resigned in January, 1862, to accept an appointment as judge of the Common Pleas Court), and took active measures to defend the line of the river in the rear of the guerillas. Calling out as many mounted men as possible, he set forth from Cannelton toward Flint Island Bar above Derby, to protect the government ram Monarch, there aground and lying entirely exposed, as her destruction was first believed to be the object of Hines' raid.

Reaching the sandbar at ten o'clock at night, to learn that Hines had gone on northward and that there was scant probability of interference with the Monarch, Colonel Fournier, as a precautionary measure, placed part of his force in a position to give certain defense to the ram in case of attack, despatching the remainder, with the Second Battalion under Captain Jesse C. Esarey, as a troop sufficient to intercept the enemy at

Blue River Island, where, it was reported, he would attempt to recross the river. By thus moving in between Hines and his expected outlet, Colonel Fournier gave complete checkmate to the marauders, since a troop of sixty armed minute-men from Paoli under Major Robert E. Clendennin, with recruits from Valeene and neighbouring settlements, besides Major Horatio Woodbury's mounted Leavenworth battalion, were hot upon the guerilla trail, pressing with all speed toward the river.

The combined manoeuvre worked out most effectively. Compelled to fly for safety nearly a day sooner than he had counted on, Hines reached his first rendezvous on the Ohio at 2 p. m., June 19, only to find no ferry facilities available; Esarey's command in front, Woodbury's and Clendennin's in the rear offering sufficient strength to rout him completely; and no relief from boats to be thought of under the circumstances. On the horns of a dilemma, and scheming to avoid open conflict with the militia and citizens, Hines turned to the guide he had conscripted, for aid in finding another crossing place.

Nothing better could have suited Bryant Breeden the guide, a loyal Union man unwillingly impressed into the enemy's service. Through Findlay McNaughton, of the First Indiana Cavalry, whom Hines had captured and was holding in custody, a little son of Bryant's, following his father to see the fun, was sent back to Leavenworth with information of the plan to cross the river farther up, so the citizens could mount patrol guard with the steamer Izetta and aid the land forces in preventing the guerillas' escape. Determined to make the most of his position, Breeden caused a bewildering delay in finding what he reported as a practical ford, and the Izetta, fully armed, was under way upstream by the time Hines and his men had been lured three miles above to Blue River Island, where the Indiana channel is shallow and easily forded in the low stage of water there was at the time, but with a deep

Major Clendennin and Captain Esarey with their troops presently came upon the scene while discussion was going on, so without further parley the guerillas, thinking their only safety lay in crossing, plunged with their booty into the ford before them, and amid yells of derision soon reached the island. But their triumph was brief. While huddled together, viewing in dismay the rather unfavourable prospect beyond, Major Clendennin opened fire upon them. Hines discharged a few ineffectual random return shots, and as a last resort attempted to swim to the southern bank, only himself and two privates thus making a successful escape. At the psychological moment the Izetta arrived in the channel, and with a piece of artillery and small arms forced the enemy back to Indiana to surrender. Three men were killed, two drowned and three wounded, these last being included in the fifty men, one lieutenant and one captain who gave themselves up as prisoners of war and were sent to Louisville under orders from General Boyle.

Single-handed and alone, a few weeks later in Meade County, Kentucky, Captain Hines rejoined General Morgan, to whom he clung with a devotion which that dazzling chieftain seemed gifted to inspire, until the final collapse of the cause at issue, and which on the part of Hines was deepened by remorse over his own costly disobedience.

Just a week prior to Hines' invasion of Perry County, or June 11, 1863, John Morgan sallied forth from Alexandria, Tennessee, heading the hazardous expedition which was destined to end in the death or capture of nearly every man among the twenty-four hundred comprising its two divisions. Of the several hard skirmishes met with on the journey toward Indiana, that at the crossing of Green River is noteworthy as occurring on July 4, a day which General Morgan found no more auspicious than did General

With the wide distance separating Pennsylvania from Mississippi, and the middle position of Kentucky, a curious picture of the distracted condition of our country is the fact that Morgan was completely ignorant of these results four whole days later, July 8, when from the heights of picturesque Brandenburg his piercing gaze swept the fertile lowlands of Harrison County, vast fields of wheat, cribs of yellow com, pens of squeaking pigs, grazing herds of fat milch-cattle or nibbling sheep, poultry-yards noisy with cackling chickens, everything that famished horses or equally hungry riders could crave, at hand for them, whithersoever the roads led.

Morgan's very name had become a note of uneasiness ringing in the ears of his enemies, and grave was the alarm felt in Perry County when news of his immediate approach from the South was received. Instant preparations for defense were begun. Valuables were hastily concealed and plans laid for sending women and children to remote places of security, but the terrible nervous tension was relaxed when the arrival of the mail packet, Lady Pike, brought tidings that the guerillas had crossed at Brandenburg, on board the John T. McCombs, which an advance squad under Captain Taylor and Captain Meriwether of the Tenth Kentucky (Confederate) had seized at two o'clock in the afternoon of July 7.

Fortune apparently smiled upon the invaders, the larger steamer Alice Dean being also captured only a few hours later, so that two vessels were available for ferriage as fast as the remaining troops arrived from Salt River. Two regiments had been transported when a gun-boat steamed down the river, beginning a fire which for a time threatened to cut in twain the guerilla force, but the battery of Parrott guns adroitly planted on the bluff, near "Park Place," the home of

Judge John W. Lewis, soon silenced interference, and ere long the entire command was in motion upon Indiana soil, outside of and away from Perry County, so that the further story of Morgan's Raid passes beyond this chronicle.

It should only be added that as Morgan swept northward from the river with pyrotechnic velocity he did not dream that the army of veterans with which Lee had invaded Pennsylvania - the finest flower of Southem manhood, a hundred thousand strong - was already cut to pieces, nearly one-third its number killed, wounded or captured, and its defeated yet unconquered remnant in full retreat across the Potomac. Strange to him and his followers, then, seemed the flags and bunting displayed on houses left open without an inmate to protect their contents against pillage. In deserted streets were half -cooled ashes of bonfires giving evidence of rejoicing over Union victories. Through a telegraph operator named Ellsworth the guerillas eventually learned that the Mississippi River at last lay open to Federal gunboats for its full length, and that the supposedly invincible Army of Virginia had been driven back. Perhaps the next news might be that Rosecrans had crushed Bragg and was pouring through the Georgia hills to Atlanta.

Where, then, were the thousands of Butternuts and Copperheads who had been standing ready to join the Confederate army? Instead of helpers or comrades the amazed raiders found everywhere empty houses, and bodies of armed men who shot at them to kill. "In a word," as Maurice Thompson, himself of Southern lineage and Confederate affiliation, has written, "Indiana was loyal. Her men might wrangle and squabble, might call one another hard names in the heat of local politics, yet when it came to choosing between Union and Secession, all stood together for the old Flag and the Constitution."