Morgan developed a reputation as one of the South's most feared Cavalry Raiders. As such, the North was particularly offended by both the daring and effectiveness of his raids. Not surprising, the Northern Press had only the most negative things to say about his Guerrilla fighting tactics. On August 30, 1862 Harper's Weekly ran the illustration above depicting an eye-witness account of one of Morgan's fearless raids into Kentucky. Morgan is pictured on horseback with a western style hat. The town can be seen in flames, and the rebels are shown looting and pillaging the town. It is widely believed today that
Morgan's raids were primarily intended to harass the enemy, and deprive him of needed supplies. Harper's Weekly carried the following article accompanying the illustration above.
Harper's Weekly August 30, 1862 THE GUERRILLAS IN THE WEST. ON page 548 we publish an illustration of the SACKING OF A CITY IN THE WEST BY THE GUERRILLAS under
John Morgan. This shameless miscreant boasted, when he returned to his rebel friends in East Tennessee, that he had destroyed $2,000,000 worth of property during his raid into Kentucky. He did not enumerate the murders or the rapes committed by his men; but we know from many sources that they constitute a formidable catalogue of crime. Guerrilla warfare involves, as a matter of necessity, the four highest crimes in the calendar —murder, rape, robbery, and arson. The bond which unites members of a guerrilla band together is love of plunder, lust, and violence. War, as carried on by civilized armies, has no attractions for them. It would not pay them. To reward them for the risks they run and the hardships they encounter without pay, they must make free with life, female purity, and property. Wherever Morgan has penetrated shrieks of agony have gone up to Heaven from outraged matrons and maidens, butchered children, and sacked households.
Parson Brownlow's book informs us of the degree of humanity possessed by the ruffians who ride with Morgan. Such God-forsaken wretches can not be found any where in the world out of the Feejee Islands and the Southern Slave States. The day will come when the West will exact a fearful retribution for the wrongs she is enduring at the hands of these creatures of
slavery. Meanwhile they go on desolating one of the fairest regions of the world, without the poor credit of helping their bad cause one single hair's-breadth. - - - End of Harper's Story - - - |
