The Great Raid

—July 1-2, 1863 —

During late June 1863 Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan's scouts and portions of his nine regiments moved into Cumberland County preparing for the Great Raid in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.

The 1st Brigade, numbering 1,450 cavalrymen under Col. Basil Duke, crossed the Cumberland River here at Neeley's Ferry, and at Burkesville, Scott's Ferry, Amandaville, and Bakerton. Col. Adam R. Johnson commanded the regiments of the 2nd Brigade, numbering 1,000. For the most part, Johnson's Brigade crossed the Cumberland at McMillan's Ferry. Salt Lick Bend, and other points west of here.

Due to heavy rains the river was out of its banks. In some places it was over one-half mile wide. Crossing the swollen river took Duke's men the better part of two days Curtis Burke, a member of Quirk's Scouts, described the scene at Neeley's Ferry in his diary:

"We had to make our horses swim as we did at Oby's river. We had to take our horses some distance above the regular entrance to the river, so that the swift current would not wash the horses too far below the landing on the other side.

We would unsaddle our horses, lead six or eight of them to the edge of the water, then let them loose, and the boys would get around them and driver them in (the river) with sticks, clods of earth, and rocks. If one (horse) started
across, the others would follow, but most of the time we had to holler and pilt them a good deal before they would make the trip... Several canoe loads of the boys were over on the other side catching the horses as they crossed."

The Cumberland River ferries operated in the first half of the 20th century. Now, only McMillan's Ferry, which crosses the river at Turkey Neck Bend in Monroe County, remains in operation. It can be reached by traveling SR 100 to SR 214 between Burkesville and Tompkinsville.

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