Note: This multi-part article originally appeared in the August 2004 and October 2004 issues of IGS Newsletter.
Confederate General John Hunt Morgan brought widespread panic to the state when he crossed the Ohio River at Brandenburg, Kentucky, west of Louisville, on July 8, 1863. Disobeying a direct order from his commanding officer to confine his activities to south of the Ohio River, Morgan's Raid was an attempt to draw Union troops away from Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee. Using two captured steamboats, Morgan ferried approximately 2,400 men, their horses and a few pieces of artillery across the Ohio River. Believing he would find support among southern Indiana Copperheads sympathetic to the Confederacy, Morgan and his troopers rode north.
Indiana Governor Oliver Morton ordered out the Home Guard and issued an immediate call for volunteers to meet the threat. Approximately 65,000 men responded within 48 hours and were formed into minutemen regiments--the 102nd through the 114th Indiana Volunteers. Rumors swept the state that Morgan would ride to Indianapolis in an attempt to free the rebel prisoners at Camp Morton. Despite the hysteria, Hoosiers did their best to assist in the crisis. A dispatch from Columbus was received in Indianapolis reporting "A company of mounted volunteers has been formed here. They have no horses, what can be done?" The reply: "Let your company of mounted men dismount and go afoot."
The only official Civil War battle to occur on Indiana soil took place on July 9th, 1863, approximately one mile south of Corydon. It lasted about thirty minutes. Morgan's advanced guard was stalled on the outskirts of town until reinforcements and artillery arrived, pushing the defenders back into the town. Morgan's Raiders rode north to Salem, burning the depot and looting stores. Union cavalry under the command of General Edward Hobson were hot on his trail so Morgan turned his men east and north to Vernon and North Vernon.
On July 11th they met their first serious resistance in the form of a large number of Home Guard, so the rebels skirted the town and rode to Dupont where they rested for several hours. Arriving at Versailles and without firing a shot, Morgan captured the town and some 300 home guardsmen, whom he subsequently paroled.
Learning that a trainload of militia were at Sunman, the rebel raiders camped outside the town until the train departed for Lawrenceburg, the 2,500 militiamen still on board. The Confederates then continued east to the state line, crossing into Harrison, Ohio and burning the bridge over the Whitewater River behind them. Colonel Lawrence Schuler's 103rd Indiana was in close pursuit. In fact, they arrived in time to watch the raiders ride off into the distant Ohio countryside. With Morgan's Raiders no longer a threat to the Hoosier state, the minutemen regiments were recalled to Indianapolis and disbanded a few days later.
The Confederates continued on through Ohio with a portion of the command crossing the Ohio River for the relative safety of Kentucky at Buffington Island Ford. Morgan and the rest of his command were captured on July 26, 1863 in northeastern Ohio, ten miles from the Pennsylvania state line. The Great Raid covered a total of 1,000 miles--the longest sustained cavalry raid of the Civil War. And those sympathetic Indiana Copperheads Morgan was counting on for assistance? Well, perhaps they were cured of their divided loyalties by the indiscriminate looting and wholesale robbery practiced by Morgan's Raiders during their ride through Indiana.
Tragically, the largest numbers of casualties resulting from the Raid were self-inflicted. A caisson of ammunition exploded in Indianapolis, wounding and killing several. And on the night of July 14th, believing that Morgan and his men were reentering the state, the 105th Indiana was sent to support the 104th at Lawrenceburg. The regiments came into contact, each assuming the other was the enemy, and shots were fired. Seven men were killed and twenty injured before the mistake was discovered and the officers regained control of the situation.
Indiana counted among its citizens a substantial number of Quakers, members of the Society of Friends. Between 16,000 and 20,000 Friends were organized into monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings in approximately thirty counties in central and southern Indiana. Quakers found their pacifist beliefs to be in conflict with their commitment to the emancipation of slaves and their love of country. The moral dilemma they faced was a difficult one. The 21% of Quaker men between the ages of 15 and 49 who joined a military company risked expulsion by doing so. At the expiration of their enlistment most, though proud of their military service, willingly rejoined a Friends meeting and were accepted back into the faith.
Quakers in Indiana are perhaps best known for their role in the Underground Railroad and the assistance they offered to slaves seeking the freedom of Canada. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 allowed for the capture and return of escaped slaves and provided for the civil punishment of those who attempted to aid the fugitives. Slave hunters scoured the state searching out fugitives--in reality any black person that resembled the description of the escaped slave. Once apprehended, blacks had no legal recourse and were given little opportunity to prove their identities. Prominent Quakers Levi and Catherine Coffin of Fountain City, Indiana were early organizers of the Underground Railroad in this state, personally helping over 2,000 escaped slaves to freedom.
In Indiana three routes were commonly used to quietly move the slaves northward: crossing the Ohio River at Evansville and continuing north through Terre Haute, Lafayette and South Bend into Michigan; crossing the river at New Albany or Madison and on through Columbus, Indianapolis and South Bend; or crossing into the state at Lawrenceburg, then traveling through Greensburg, Richmond and Fort Wayne. Sympathetic citizens assisted along each route, taking enormous risks to provide food, clothing, a secure hiding place and directions to the next stop along the route.
For obvious reasons, activities on the Underground Railroad were kept secret from relatives and neighbors. Exact details about the number and location of all the stations on the railroad will never be known and today almost any old house or barn with an unusually shaped room or hidden entrance is attributed to the railroad. While the Underground Railroad operated in Indiana as early as 1829, it had most likely ceased operations by early in the war, or certainly by 1863 when Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was enacted.
Hollywood produces such a convincing argument that it is incredibly easy to think the Civil War happened elsewhere in this country--Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, on the Mississippi, or the James River. But Indiana and her citizens paid a heavy price for their part in the war as well. A visit to any of Indiana's Civil War sites, such as the Colonel Eli Lilly Museum in Indianapolis, the Lane House in Crawfordsville or the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail in southern Indiana will help provide valuable insight into the lives of Hoosiers during the Civil War.
Selected websites and reading: