Morgan's Wedding

John Hunt Morgan, widowed since 1861, married seventeen-year-old Martha Ready in Murfreesboro on December 14, 1862, in what was the highlight of the city's winter social season. Most of the Confederate high command attended, and Bishop Leonidas Polk, who was also a lieutenant general, performed the ceremony. Two weeks later, as the battle of Stones River began, Morgan's cavalry was raiding behind Union lines. His Great Raid into Indiana and Ohio followed in July 1863 and ended in his capture. Their daughter, Johnnie, was born after his death.

What the plaque says

Morgan's Wedding In a house which stood here, Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan, CSA, was married to Miss Martha Ready Dec. 14, 1862, by Bishop (also Lt. Gen.,, CSA) Leonidas Polk. Col. Basili Duke was best man. Among the groomsmen were Gen. Braxton Bragg, Lt. Gen. W.J. Hardee, Maj. Gens. J.C. Breckinridge and B.F. Cheatham and Co. G. St. leger Grenfell.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 3.1 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.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 25 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 25 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Fort Negley — 30 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.

More markers nearby

• Forrest's Murfreesboro Raid, July 13, 1862 — steps away
• Grantland Rice — steps away
• Hardy Murfree — steps away
• James Daniel Richardson — steps away