We have alluded to the errors and
misrepresentations ib relation to Gen.
Morgan's death. The most_prominent of
these, and one that had its origin on
the day it occurred and has been
repeated ever since, though it has been
repeatedly contradicted, has been
embodied in a United States history,
written by Miss S. P. Lee, and adopted
by the Board of Commissioners of the
State of Tennessee as a text-book. The
following is a quotation from this
history( ?)
"Early in September Morgan was in the
village of Greeneville with only a small
detachment of soldiers. The
daughter-in-law of the woman at whose
house he lodged rode at night to a
Federal camp some miles off and told
where the gallant Confederate officer
could be captured. Four companies of
Federal cavalry dashed into the town and
surrounded the house where he slept. His
staff was captured but Morgan escaped
into the garden. He was unarmed. There
was no possibility of his getting away
from the surrounding soldiers, so he
came out from his place of concealment
and surrendered to the Federal Captain.
After this a cavalryman rode up to
within TWO FEET of him, and,
notwithstanding Morgan's assurance that
he was a prisoner, shot and killed him
and inflicted indignities upon his
body."
In refutation of this statement we have
the statement of Major Hines, a member
of Gen. Morgan's staff who was present
at the time and who in a book written
after the war entitled "The Gray
Jackets," in which he gives. an extended
account of the affair, says : "Major
Gosset, Captain Rogers and Mr. Johnson
sprang out in the direction of the
vineyard where the two latter were
captured and General Morgan killed. The
latter had just fired his pistol and was
in the act of firing again when he
fell." Quoting from another commenting
on this extract: "From the above it will
be seen that General Morgan was duly and
fully armed, and was on 'the firing
line' shooting at the enemy when he was
shot and killed."
The report of indignities offered the
body of General Morgan and that it was
dragged through the street with a
display of barbarous rejoicing was
circulated by his sympathizers before we
left Greeneville on the day of his
death. There was no foundation for it
whatever except the order given by Col.
Ingerton to Captain Wilcox "to bring
Morgan's body out, dead or alive," and
the fact that this order was carried out
by Campbell on horseback, and that it
may have been bruised, or discolored by
contact with the saddle. Our men,
however, were too hotly pursued at this
time to think of making a display of the
body even had they been barbarians.
In explanation of Col. Ingerton's order
it may be said that it was given in a
moment of excitement and confusion. The
thought uppermost in his mind was
probably to extricate his Regiment from
its dangerous position, and believing a
blow to the commander would demoralize
the enemy he gave the order to emphasize
the importance of the undertaking. There
was certainly nothing barbarous or
unsoldierly in Col. Ingerton's nature.
This report having been circulated at
the time, it is our recollection, that
Capt. J. T. Rogers and two others, of
General Morgan's staff officers, were
requested to make a written statement of
the facts over their signatures, which
they did. The statement was published in
the "Knoxville Whig" at the time. They
stated that Gen. Morgan after his
imprisonment in the Ohio penitentiary
had often declared he would never
surrender again, and it was his refusal
to surrender that had cost him his life.
They stated further that they had been
treated with the greatest courtesy and
kindness by the officers of the Tennesse
Brigade.
The following affidavits from honorable
and truthful citizens should be
conclusive as to the facts :
STATE OF TENNESSEE,
COUNTY OF CARTER,
SS.
Personally came before me, Clerk and
Master of the Chancery Court for said
County and State, John M. Wilcox, M. D.
L. Miller and William M. Bishop and made
oath in due form of law as follows:
That each of us were enlisted soldiers
in Company G, of the 13th Regiment of
Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U. S. A.;
that we were present with our Company in
the charge made into the town of
Greeneville, Tenn., on the morning of
September 4, 1864, and witnessed the
shooting of Gen. John H. Morgan by
Andrew Campbell, then a private of
Company G, 13th Tenn. Cavalry, and
assisted to carry the body of Gen.
Morgan from the place where it fell and
assisted in placing it on Campbell's
horse and went with it in the retreat
from the town; and we further declare
that Gen. Morgan was dead before his
body was removed; that there was no
indignity offered the body any further
than its removal as stated, and that the
facts in regard to it as stated in Scott
and Angel's history of the 13th
Tennessee Cavalry, which have been made
known to us, are absolutely true and
correct to the best of our knowledge and
recollection.
JOHN M. WILCOX, Lt. Co. G.,
M. D. L. MILLER, Sergt. Co. G.,
W. M. BISHOP, Private Co. G.
Sworn to and subscribed before me on
this, the 2nd day of October, 1902. And
I certify that the affiants are each of
them well known to me, and that each of
them are respectable and in good
standing in this community where they
were born and raised, and that their
Post Office address is Elizabethton,
Tennessee.
R. A. SMITH,
Clerk and Master.
(Certified copy of this affidavit on
file in Clerk and Master's office,
Elizabethton, Tenn.)
TO ALL WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN:
I was an enlisted man and Corporal in
Co. G, 13th Regt., Tenn. Cav., U. S. A.,
and was present with my company Sept.
4th, 1864, at Greeneville, Tenn., when
the Confederate General, John H. Morgan,
was killed by Private Andrew Campbell.
That I was within a few feet of the
General when he fell. That I assisted in
placing his body on Campbell's horse
when we retreated out of Greeneville.
That no indignity was done to his body.
That he was shot while in the act of
firing upon Sergeant John M. Wilcox and
myself.
I have read the manuscript of Comrades
S. W. Scott and S. P. Angel for their
history of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry
and I certify that their description of
Morgan's death is true and correct.
J. G. BURCHFIELD,
Late Corp. Co. G, 13th Tenn. Cav.
Address 653 A St., N. E., Washington, D.
C.
Subscribed and sworn to before me at
Washington City, District of Columbia,
this 2nd day of October, A. D. 1902.
WM. H. DELACY,
Notary Public.
In view of the incontestable evidence of
the errors into which Miss Lee has
fallen in her school history, and in
behalf of truth and justice, and the
honor of the Federal soldiers of East
Tennessee, we enter our protest against
the use of this history in our public
schools unless these errors are
expunged.
We would state here that in a later
edition of Miss Lee's history her former
version has been materially modified,
but the history will not be worthy a
place in our schools until it gives the
true facts and completely exonerates the
Tennessee soldiers from the charge
contained in it.
Another sensational report, that Mrs.
Lucy Williams, the daughter-in-law of
the lady at whose house Gen. Morgan and
staff were lodging, rode through the
darkness and storm a distance of sixteen
miles has no shadow of truth in it. This
story is fully refuted by Mr. Wilson.
This lady, or some other claiming to
have performed this feat posed as a
heroine at Knoxville and other places
just after the event, but we can find no
evidence other than that Gen. Morgan's
whereabouts were made known to our
officers in the .manner we have stated.
In regard to who furnished the
information that led to this night
expedition and the killing of Gen.
Morgan, others have claimed this honor
besides Mrs. Williams. Edmond B. Miller,
who was at that time a citizen of
Greeneville, but now deceased, we have
been informed, filed a claim in the War
Department before his death, stating
that he was the man who warned the
Federal officers that Gen. Morgan was at
the Williams home.
We only know, as a certainty, that some
citizen of Greeneville came to Col.
Ingerton and told him of Morgan's force
being at College Hill and that the
General himself with his staff and a
small guard, were at the residence of
Mrs. Williams, who did this we are not
prepared to say.
Mr. Wilson, whose article in the Banner
we have alluded to, makes an unimportant
error in stating that Andrew Campbell,
the man who shot Gen. Morgan, was a
native of Greene county, Tennessee.
Campbell was a native of Dublin,
Ireland. He came to New Orleans about
the beginning of the war and joined the
Confederate army as "a soldier of
fortune" probably, more than attachment
to the Confederate cause. Growing tired
of hard fighting and poor pay, he quit
that service of his own accord and
sought service in the Federal army. As
we have stated elsewhere, he was picked
up at Nashville and brought to the
Regiment by John M. Smith, a resident of
Carter county, Tenn., and enlisted in
Company G. After the Greeneville fight
he Was first promoted to Sergeant of
Company E. as shown by the order which
appears in the Adjutant-General's Report
of the State of Tennessee:
ORDER OF CONGRATULATION.
HEADQUARTERS THIRTEENTH REGIMENT,
TENN. CAV.,
BULL'S GAP, TENN., Sept.. 7, 1864.
ORDERS No. 95.
I. The Lieut.-Colonel commanding the
Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry takes pride
in saying that the officers and enlisted
men under his command have surpassed his
most sanguine expectations, and
exhibited a spirit of gallantry and
determination that would do honor to
veteran soldiers. He takes pleasure in
commending them for the promptness and
energy with which they have discharged
their duty in the presence of the enemy,
and congratulates them upon the success
which has attended them in expelling
from their homes the presumptuous foe
who had attempted to teach East
Tennesseeans disloyalty to their
government.
II. Private Andrew Campbell, of
Company G, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry,
is hereby appointed First Sergeant of
Company E, of this regiment, a reward
for his gallantry at the engagement at
Greeneville, Tenn., on the 4th inst.,
and for his success in arresting, by an
accurate shot, the flight of Gen. John
H. Morgan, one of our -country's most
prominent enemies.
By order of
Lt.-Col. W. H. INGERTON,
Commanding Thirteenth Tenn. Cav.
Sam'I W. Scott, First Lieut. and Acting
Adjutant.
On the 13th of October, 1864, Campbell
was commissioned First Lieutenant of
Company E. by Governor Johnson and held
this position until mustered out of the
service Sept. 5, 1865. He was noted for
his bravery in every engagement. He was
with Captain Dan. Ellis in the Spring of
1865 in a number of fights with the
enemy at Elizabethton, Tenn., and in
Johnson county, Tenn., and assisted in
driving the last enemy from these two
counties. After the war he resided at
Bloomington, Ind., and later at
Indianapolis. We have not been able to
locate him at this time (1902), and do
not know whether he is still living or
has joined the great army of our
comrades who have passed across "the
Silent Sea."
After the war, and even up to the
present time, we have heard of a number
of men, each of whom claim to have. in
his possession one or more of the
identical pistols used by Gen. Morgan
just before he was shot, and no doubt
there were, and many of them may be in
existence still, a number of pistols
taken from officers and men who were
with Gen. Morgan that day, and which
were spoken of as "Morgan pistols," but
we have good authority for the
statement, and we believe it is true,
that the two pistols in the hands of
Gen. Morgan that morning and found near
his body, were silver-mounted, or had a
silver plate on them with the following
inscription : "Presented to Gen. Hardee
by Colonel Colt." It was said the
pistols were presented to Gen. Morgan by
Gen. Hardee. We would be pleased to have
a confirmation or refutation of this
statement from a reliable source by any
one living who actually knows the facts.
Appreciating the importance of giving to
our readers every evidence possible in
corroboration of the facts we have
endeavored to set forth, in addition to
the quotations we append further
quotations from Mr. Wilson's article on
the death of General Morgan, published
in the "National Tribune," which though
to some extent a repetition of what we
have already written contains other
interesting matter bearing on this
event. Mr. Wilson has the reputation of
being a close student of history and is
an able and fair-minded writer.
This article deals with the various
rumors that have been published and
shows from facts which he has gathered
from reliable sources that these stories
are without foundation in fact.
DEATH OF
MORGAN.
______
CORRECTION OF ERRORS IN SOME ALLEGED
HISTORIES.
______
BY A. B. WILSON, GREENEVILLE, TENN.
Tennessee has a school-book law under
which it is made a misdemeanor for any
teacher to substitute any other book on
the same subject suitable for the same
grade, for those adopted by the School
Book Commissioners. This is the case in
several of the Southern States. One of
the books adopted in Tennessee, and
several other Southern States, is Lee's
History of the United States. This book,
on page 334, with reference to the death
of Gen. John H. Morgan, states:
"Early in September, Morgan was in the
village of Greeneville with only a few
soldiers. The daughter-in-law of the
woman at whose house he lodged carried
information to the Federal camp of his
whereabouts. Four companies of Federal
cavalry surrounded the house where he
was sleeping. His staff were captured,
but Morgan escaped, unarmed, into the
garden. Seeing that he could not get
away, he came out from his hiding place
and surrendered to the Federal Captain.
After this a cavalryman rode close up to
him and, in spite of Morgan's repeated
declaration that he was a prisoner,
killed him."
Although not so stated in this book,
other publications add a little to the
account given in Lee's History, by
stating that after Gen. Morgan was shot,
and before life was extinct, his body
was thrown across a horse, and paraded
up and down the streets in a barbarous
manner.
These statements are in fact untrue, and
it would be discreditable to the
publisher of any respectable political
newspaper at the present time to publish
them as facts. How much worse is the
offense when they are published as facts
in a school book, and when the teachers
of the public schools are required by
law to teach them to the children as a
part of the history of the country.
It was but natural that in articles
written shortly after the Civil War, and
while the partisan or sectional
animosities growing out of the war had
but little abated, that rumors and even
suspicions prejudicial to the honor of
the opposite side, picked up at random,
and without any investigation as to
their truthfulness, should be published
as facts. This has beets demonstrated,
even, in the writings of Gen. Basil
Duke, the eulogist of Gen. Morgan, in
his statements in relation to his death.
-
It is time that all disputes on this
matter should be set at rest by some one
who has honestly studied the facts, and
whose whole aim is to give a correct
statement, based on the best of
evidence, in relation to the death of
Gem Morgan.
The writer now resides within a stone's
throw of the place where Gen. Morgan
fell. He has conversed with men who were
in each of the contending forces, as
well as with members of the Williams
family, and, what he deems of greater
importance, he has conversed with many
of the citizens of Greeneville, some of
whom were eye-witnesses, and whose
feelings and sympathies were as varied
as those of the armed contending forces.
From this, data, and his personal
knowledge of the locality and
surroundings, he bases the following
statements in relation to the historical
inaccuracies which have been so widely
published and taught in the schools in
the Southern States
Prior to the events referred to, Gen.
Alvin Gillem was stationed at Bull's
Gap, 16 miles west of Greeneville, in
command of brigade -composed of the 8th,
9th and 13th Tenn. Cav. and a light
battery of artillery. His position was
about 58 miles from Knoxville, where was
his nearest support.
This position was in a gap of the
mountains, or range of hills, but could
be flanked by roads running on either
side, which in case of an attack could
not have been defended with the forces
at his command. Gen. John H. Morgan was
at or near Bristol, 56 miles east of
Greeneville, with a force of cavalry and
artillery, considerably in excess of
those of Gen. Gillem, and he determined
to attack Gen. Gillem's forces and
either capture them or compel them to
fall back to Knoxville. He moved his
forces to Greeneville, leaving only 16
miles between his forces and the enemy.
The bold dash of the Federal brigade,
under command of Gen. Alvin Gillem,
composed of Tennessee troops, many of
whom had refugeed from their homes to
reach the Federal army, deserves some
words of commendation from the impartial
historian. The commanding officers had
received information as to the situation
of Gen. Morgan's forces and knew that
Morgan's purpose was to. assail their
position. Although they knew that Gen.
Morgan had a superior force, they
determined not to await his arrival. The
night was dark and rainy and the roads
over the 16 miles to be traveled were
far from good.
It was well into the night when the
brigade moved out, and during much of
the night they traveled through the
rain. It was after daylight when the
advance guard—not composed of four
companies, but of about 60 men detailed
from the different regiments—reached
Greeneville, the head of the main column
being more than a mile in the rear.
The Confederate pickets were surprised
and captured without the firing of a
gun. The Williams house was surrounded
before Gen. Morgan was awake. He hastily
put on his pants and boots and escaped
into the garden—not unarmed, but with
his pistols on him.
While in the vineyard, and when trying
to shoot, he was shot and killed by
Andrew Campbell, a private in the 13th
Tenn. Cav. Campbell shot from his horse
in the street, a distance of perhaps 50
yards. Morgan had not surrendered, and
was not unarmed. According to some he
had shot at least once, and when he
received the fatal shot was attempting
to shoot again. At this time the main
force of Gen. Gillem's Brigade was still
a mile or more from the town, and after
Gen. Morgan was dead the body was thrown
on a horse and taken back for
identification.
On being attacked, Morgan's command
retreated and were pursued by Gillem's
forces about six miles.
The body of Gen. Morgan, after being
dressed and placed in a coffin, was
delivered up to his friends, who were
sent to ask it under a flag of truce.
The alleged betrayal is yet to be
explained. The only basis for the
betrayal theory is given by Gen. Duke,
which in substance is that after the
arrival of Gen. Morgan and his staff at
the Williams residence, the
daughter-in-law was seen to leave, and
although parties were sent to look for
her she could not be found, and it
appeared that she had ridden all the way
to Bull's Gap to inform Gen. Gillem of
Morgan's whereabouts and the position of
his forces.
Mrs. Lucy Williams, the daughter-in-law
referred to, was of an aristocratic
Southern family, young and handsome. Her
sympathies were strongly with the
Confederate cause, and in the
Confederate Army she had two brothers,
one being a Captain in command of a
company, and the other a Major in the
Quartermaster's Department. Had it been
true that she made the daring ride
attributed to her, she would have been
seen by many of the inhabitants along
the road, and the visions of the
handsome woman in her daring ride of 16
miles in the darkness and rain would
have been a subject for a romance such
as is but seldom found in real life.
In fact, the whole tale is false. It
seems, however, that this matter was
shortly thereafter brought to the
attention of Gen. Gillem, when he sent
to the Secretary of War the following
dispatch:
Bull's Gap. Sept. 19, 1864.
Hon. E. H. Stanton:—In reply to request
to report the part taken by Mrs.
Williams in the capture of Morgan, I
have the honor to state that neither
Mrs. Williams nor any other lady gave
any information which caused the advance
which resulted in the surprise, defeat
and death of Gen. Morgan. I forward
detailed report by mail.
A. C. GILLEM, Brigadier-General.
The suspicion against Mrs. Lucy
Williams, which is treated as though
true as holy writ in Southern histories,
arose from the following facts: Mrs.
Catharine D. Williams drew her supplies
from her farm, four miles distant, and
not in the direction of Bull's Gap. On
the arrival of Gen. Morgan and his staff
something was needed from the farm.
Negroes could not then be relied on, and
the errand was assigned to the
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lucy Williams. She
did go to the farm, and did not go to
Bull's Gap. She was expected to return
in the evening, but a hard rain came on,
and she was compelled to remain with a
tenant during the night. She was at the
residence of Mr. Isaac Brannon, near the
farm, during the rain in the afternoon.
She was seen on her way returning from
the farm the next morning by several of
the most responsible citizens, and when
she evidently had no knowledge of the
Federal forces being in the town. She
was stopped by the Federal pickets, and
thus did come in with the Federal
troops.— National Tribune. |
