Confederate Invasion of Kentucky
—August, 1862 —
On August 29, 1862 at the beginning of the Confederate Invasion of Kentucky. Colonel John Hunt Morgan rode into Scottsville, leading a brigade of 1,100 cavalrymen. Morgan and his men were on their way to Lexington, where they planned to join with General Kirby Smith's forces.
At Morgan's side was his brother-in-law and second in command, Basil Duke. Riding with the command were Captain John Breckinridge Castleman, a member of a prominent Lexington family, and Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell, a former British army officer and French cavalryman.
Many citizens of Scottsville turned out to see Morgan, including eight year old Sallie Porter Edmonds and her family. Over 65 years later Miss Edmonds recalled Morgan — a tall, broad shouldered, handsome man with watchful eyes and a tender, kind expression. Morgan spoke to the assembled citizens from the steps of the Scottsville Hotel on the courthouse square. The Confederates had come to liberate Kentucky, he told them, and to permanently occupy the state. His men passed out handbills urging the men of the Commonwealth to enlist for the Confederate cause.
Isaac N. HuntOne of those swayed by Morgan's address in Scottsville was young Isaac Hunt, then not quite fifteen. Hunt enlisted as a private in Company C 3rd Kentucky Cavalry,
CSA. He rode with Morgan until he was captured, along with Morgan, in Chester, Ohio in July 1863. Hunt was interred at Camp Chase near Columbus, Ohio, paroled at Camp Douglas in Springfield, Illinois, and eventually transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland for exchange March 2, 1865. After the war Hunt, then only 18, married. He and his wife, Elizabeth, returned to Hunt's boyhood home near Gainesville in Allen County. Hunt died November 16, 1916 and is buried with his wife in the Hunt family graveyard at Gainesville.
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photo captions)
· (
top left) The Allen County Courthouse as it appeared during the Civil War. Built in 1819, this building served as the courthouse for Allen County until it was replaced in 1903.
Photography courtesy of the Allen County Historical Society
· (
bottom left) Following his first Kentucky Raid Morgan reported to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg that 30,000 Kentuckians were ready to join the Confederate army. Morgan's report proved false, but may have helped sway Bragg to invade the state in the summer of 1862.
· (
right side) Morgan's men distributed this handbill from the courthouse steps in Scottsville in August 1862. Morgan was trying to recruit Kentuckians to the Confederate cause.
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