Morgan's Ohio Raid June 11, 1863

John Hunt Morgan was ordered not to cross the Ohio River, and the raid was meant as a diversion. Instead his column rode through Indiana and Ohio for more than six weeks, from June 11 to July 26, 1863. It set out with about 2,460 men and four guns by the usual count. The Union Tullahoma Campaign opened in Middle Tennessee on June 23, twelve days after the column left, so the raid is best read as part of that larger campaign season.

What the plaque says

Morgan's Ohio Raid June 11, 1863 The raid by Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan's Cavalry Division into Indiana and Ohio began here. Units were the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Kentucky Cavalry, and the 9th Tennessee Cavalry, with attached artillery. Brig. Gen. Basil Duke and Col. Adam Johnson commanded brigades. The raid ended in capture of the bulk of the 2640 man force at Buffington, Ohio. A small portion escaped to Virginia.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Burgess Falls State Park — 24 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.
• Stones River National Battlefield — 26 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Rock Island State Park — 28 mi
  A park where the Collins, Rocky and Caney Fork rivers meet at the head of Center Hill Lake, with a gorge of waterfalls below a 1917 dam and the remains of a cotton-mill town.
• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 28 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.

More markers nearby

• DeKalb County Fair — 0.9 mi
• Wheeler School — 1.2 mi
• Adam Dale — 5.1 mi
• Wilson Lawrence Waters — 6.2 mi