Joseph Connell
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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July 12 - 14
On the morning of July 12th, 1863, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan crossed the Indiana/Ohio and was sighted near Dayton, Ohio. Already in contravention of his standing orders from General Braxton Bragg to remain south of the Ohio River, Morgan chose to take his campaign further and begin raiding the Union rear areas.
Brigadier General Henry Moses Judah, commander of 3rd Division, XXIII Corps, immediately moved his available forces to intercept Morgan’s command (comprising roughly half his 2,400 cavalrymen). Moving his headquarters from Cincinnati to Hamilton, Judah quickly engaged Morgan at Dayton, but the hasty attack fell apart and Judah was forced to retreat back to Hamilton in disorganization. Morgan’s subordinate, Colonel Basil Duke then struck Judah already reduced command from across the Great Miami River. In the resulting melee, General Judah was killed (it’s unknown how or by whom) and his command disintegrated entirely. This resulted in the militia under Lt. Colonel Scammon, then stationed in Columbus, being the only available military forces in the whole of Ohio to oppose Morgan’s movements.
However Judah had, prior to moving to engage Morgan, wired for Brigadier General Edward H. Hobson to reinforce him from Kentucky. Hobson however was actually stationed to the north, near Canton, and arrived in the state literally the same day Judah’s command was destroyed. He immediately set his staff to work on moving his columns to the southwest, speeding them through Newark, Columbus, and finally reaching Washington.
While Hobson was in transit, Colonel Duke crossed into Ohio as well, taking up position near Hamilton. General Morgan conducted an early-morning raid on businesses and stores in Dayton, seizing a sizable bag of supplies and horses. Morgan then moved on to Urbana, intent upon doing the same there. Colonel Duke attempted a similar raid on Hamilton, but surprisingly was repulsed by locals and the remaining formations of Judah’s troops. Morgan’s raid on Urbana was aborted when Federal scouts raised the local alarm; Morgan withdrew without further incident.
July 15 - 17
General Hobson, now headquartered in Washington and having consulted with Governor Todd, elected to engage Duke’s command while he was still bivouacked near Hamilton. His attack proved successful and the Confederate forces were partially scattered, with Duke withdrawing to Hillsborough in the southeast.
Morgan meanwhile attempted another raid on Urbana, and this time caught local forces completely by surprise. Emboldened by this news and the lack of signs of pursuit, Duke decided to raid the Federal stores in Hamilton, only to again be repulsed by locals. His already weakened command couldn’t endure, and most of his remaining troops were captured and later paroled. The few hundred that remained at liberty were too disorganized to be effective, and so Colonel Duke - entirely on his own authority - gave them leave to return home.
Governor Todd had issued a call for reinforcements, which were starting to arrive. A fresh regiment of Militia under Colonel McFarlane arrived in Columbus.
The Outriders, the last intact element of Morgan’s overall command, finally moved across the Great Miami into Hamilton and threatened Hobson’s rear. Using this distraction, Morgan engaged Hobson directly from Urbana, successfully splitting his forces and leaving it in disorder. Hobson decided to deal with the Outriders first, unwilling to leave even a minor threat to his rear. Catching the Outriders unprepared, Hobson’s Illinois cavalry dealt them a death blow. Unfortunately, he’d underestimated the time it would take for Morgan to reorganize and resupply, and so was caught out when Morgan’s 1,200 strong cavalry tore into his lines. Hobson suffered the humiliation of both defeat and capture by the numerically inferior Confederates.
These events however kept Morgan in place long enough for further reinforcements to arrive: Indiana cavalry under Colonel Rue arrived in Cincinnati, and a brigade of Regulars under Colonel Way stepped off the train in Canton.
Despite having lost over half his forces, Morgan decided to press on and moved his troops to Washington. Rue, by coincidence, was heading in that same direction via Hamilton. The two forces met and skirmished, but without either side gaining advantage. Morgan however decided to head further east across the Scioto River, ultimately arriving outside of Logan.
July 18 - 20
A second force from Indiana under Shakleford arrived in Cincinnati on the morning the 18th, as did fresh troops from Wisconsin under Lt. Colonel Hill in Canton. By this time however Way had set out towards Newark, reasoning Morgan would likely attempt to raid the area for additional supplies. Morgan did exactly this and bagged necessary goods. Arriving in Newark, Way immediately sought battle with the Confederate cavalry, skirmishing twice with his lead elements twice but failing to engage the main body.
Recognizing he’d pressed his luck further than he should, Morgan moved to Marietta. Colonel Rue’s cavalry, now resupplied and reinforced, moved to Washington with the intent of joining pursuit. Colonel Way likewise moved his forces to Cambridge, intent on cutting Morgan off from the north.
Morgan attempted a final raid for supplies and disruption, attacking Marietta. The locals however were better organized than expected and the raid was not only repulsed, but over 400 of Morgan’s men were captured and detained. With barely a quarter of his original strength left, Morgan decided to seek escape to the south. Before he could move however, Way’s regulars caught up with him and engaged. The sheer weight of numbers and firepower overwhelmed his light cavalry, and General Morgan offered Colonel Way his sword in surrender on the evening of July 20th, bringing his unauthorized campaign in Ohio to an end.
Analysis
Morgan’s early success against Judah left him overconfident, and he failed to take advantage of the brief window between Judah’s defeat and the arrival of Hobson whereby there was no organized opposition against his presence (Governor Todd didn’t dare leave Columbus uncovered, and so kept Scammon in place). Additionally, Duke and the Outriders were too slow in crossing into Ohio, failing to reinforce Morgan in time to make a difference. Finally, both Morgan and Duke badly underestimated the resistance they’d met at the local level, and so were unprepared when residents took up arms to defend themselves.
In the end, although Morgan had successfully conducted a short string of raids and caused some limited disruption, his only real accomplishment was diverting 20,000 or so Federal troops and cavalry into a week-long sideshow in the Ohio countryside, in the process utterly destroying the finest light cavalry the CSA had in its arsenal.
In game terms:
*3 Victory Points (raids on Dayton, Urbana and Marietta)
*2 Federal Regular units (Judah and Hobson) destroyed
*ALL three Confederate units destroyed
Player's Notes:
*The ranks given for Morgan, Duke, Judah, and Hobson are all historically accurate; I've had to guess at the others.
*I've likewise made informed guess about where the troops under Way, Ruy, and other later reinforcements came from; these are not necessarily historically accurate.
*Basically Morgan was the victim of some pretty poor CDs here; not only could he not move quicker than he should, not only did Federal reinforcements arrive faster than anticipated, but he was really unlucky in his attempted raids (as Duke's fate illustrates).
Thanks for reading.
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Jeff Myers
United States
Los Ranchos
New Mexico
"Always rely upon a happy mind alone." Geshe Chekhawa.
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How dare you raid my hometown! (Marietta.)
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