I should state that Morgan had thoroughly planned the raid before he
marched from Tennessee. He meant to cross the Cumberland in the vicinity
of Burkesville, and to march directly across Kentucky to the nearest
point at which he could reach the Ohio west of Louisville, so closely
approaching Louisville as to compel belief that he meant to attempt its
capture. Turning to the right after entering Indiana, and marching as
nearly due east as possible, he would reduce to a minimum the distance
necessary to be covered, and yet threaten and alarm the population of
the two States as completely as by penetrating deeply into them; more
so, indeed, for pursuing this line he would reach the immediate vicinity
of Cincinnati and excite fears for the safety of that city. While he
intended to prolong the raid to the uttermost, he proposed to be at no
time far from the Ohio, so that he might avail himself of an opportunity
to recross. On reaching the borders of Pennsylvania, he intended, if
General Lee should be in that State, to make every effort to join him;
failing in that, to make his escape through West Virginia. Information
he had gotten about the fords of the upper Ohio had induced him to
indicate Buffington's Island as the point where he would attempt to
recross that stream. He deemed the passage of the Cumberland one of the
four chief difficulties of the expedition that might prove really
dangerous and insuperable; the other three were the passage of the Ohio,
the circuit around Cincinnati, and the recrossing of the Ohio.

Before noon on the 2d of July my brigade began to cross the Cumberland
at Burkesville and at Scott's Ferry, two miles higher up the stream. The
river, swollen by heavy and long-continued rains, was pouring down a
volume of water which overspread its banks and rushed with a velocity
that seemed to defy any attempt to stem it. Two or three canoes lashed
together and two small flats served to transport the men and the