BY BASIL W. DUKE


In the summer of 1863, when, at Tullahoma, Tennessee, General Bragg's
army was menaced by superior numbers in flank and rear, he determined to
send a body of cavalry into Kentucky, which should operate upon
Rosecrans's communications between Nashville and Louisville, break the
railroads, capture or threaten all the minor depots of supplies,
intercept and defeat all detachments not too strong to be engaged, and
keep the enemy so on the alert in his own rear that he would lose or
neglect his opportunity to embarrass or endanger the march of the army
when its retrograde movement began. He even hoped that a part of the
hostile forces before him might be thus detained long enough to prevent
their participation in the battle which he expected to fight when he
crossed the Tennessee.

The officer whom he selected to accomplish this diversion was General
John H. Morgan, whose division of mounted riflemen was well fitted for
the work in hand. Equal in courage, dash, and discipline to the other
fine cavalry commands which General Bragg had at his disposal, it had
passed a longer apprenticeship in expeditionary service than had any
other. Its rank and file was of that mettle which finds its natural
element in active and audacious enterprise, and was yet thrilled with
the fire of youth; for there were few men in the division over
twenty-five years of age. It was imbued with the spirit of its
commander, and confided in his skill and fortune; no endeavor was deemed
impossible or even hazardous when he led. It was inured to constant,
almost daily, combat with the enemy, of all arms and under every
possible contingency. During its four years of service the 2d Kentucky