AUTOGRAPH ALBUM SIGNED BY IMPRISONED GENERAL JOHN HUNT MORGAN AND HIS RAIDERS JUST BEFORE THE MOST DARING JAILBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR
MORGAN, John Hunt, et al. Autographs of Genl. John H. Morgan and other Confederate Officers Confined in the Ohio Penitentiary at Columbus, 1st August 1863 [hand-lettered title in Autograph album]. Columbus, OH: Ohio Penitentiary, September, 1863 [album produced in Philadelphia by J.B. Lippincott]. Octavo, original blind-tooled crimson morocco rebacked, all edges gilt. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.
Very rare 1863 autograph album signed by imprisoned Confederate general John Hunt Morgan and 68 of his raiders in the Ohio Federal Penitentiary just two months before undertaking the most daring jailbreak of the Civil War in November, 1863.
John Hunt Morgan's exploits in the Western Theater during the Civil War were second in audacity and skill only to those of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Beginning in 1862, as captain of a select company of Kentucky cavalrymen, he led several raids into his home state of Kentucky. A constant nuisance to Union armies operating in the South, he often skirted around them to harry their lines of supply and communication, capturing men behind Union lines, taking entire trains, and destroying innumerable supplies. After a year of spectacular successes, which included the capture of over 1700 Yankees at Hartsville, Tennessee, Morgan was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. In the Summer of 1863 he staged his most important and dangerous maneuver. Without obtaining General Wheeler's blessing, he and his 2000 men crossed into Indiana and Ohio from Kentucky. "Pursued by superior forces, he commenced a wild ride through the suburbs of Cincinnati, and east. The ride was so fast, fifty to sixty miles a day, and his column was so harassed by swarms of home guards, that Morgan's men became exhausted, with the result that when their pursuers caught up with them on July 19… most of the command surrendered. Morgan himself rode on, but was surrounded near New Lisbon, Ohio, and on July 26 surrendered. This raid destroyed Morgan's division… but it drew large Federal forces from in front of Bragg's army, and saved East Tennessee to the Confederacy for several months" (Dictionary of American Biography).
The Federals, determined to make an example of Morgan and his men, confined them to the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus and refused to consider any exchange or treat them as gentlemen. They forced them to bathe in tubs of dirty water, shaved off all their hair, mustaches and beards, forbade them to talk at meals, refused to allow them newspapers, handed them empty envelopes from their wives and families, and confined them to a moldy dungeon for insubordination. Conditions improved somewhat after Morgan protested to the Governor, and the prisoners were given better food and permitted to play chess, marbles and cards. Some relatives were allowed to visit; but when the two Morgan brothers were visited by their family they were not permitted to speak to or touch each other. Some news leaked in by word-of-mouth and smuggled newspapers; just at the time when the inmates were signing this autograph album their spirits were lifted by reports of Chickamauga.
Life in the gloomy penitentiary was too hard on some, however. Morgan struggled to keep from falling into despair, writing endless letters to his bride and receiving few in return. Some of his men were caught in a kind of nervous lethargy, while others contemplated escape. The man credited with masterminding what has been called the Civil War's most famous jailbreak was Thomas H. Hines, who in reading Les Miserables in his cell was struck with the notion of digging his way out. (Hines has signed this album.) To this day no one is sure how he and Morgan and five others actually escaped. The contemporary version, told in the newspapers and marveled at from one end of the South to the other, says that the prisoners used kitchen knives to make a tunnel from the air passage beneath their cells to the outer courtyard. They worked for a month, chiseling and scraping while their captors were away and signaling when they returned. On the night of November 26th, the seven men emerged in the courtyard, evaded ferocious guard dogs, climbed over the wall with a rag rope, and took the next train for home. Modern evidence, however, suggests that other means of escape were used. An examination of the tunnel in the 1930's revealed that it extended only six feet before hitting virgin soil; and other evidence suggested that bribery may have been Morgan's passage to freedom. He resumed his career as a raider in April, 1864, but was never as successful as before his imprisonment. On September 3, 1864, at Greenville, Tennessee, a party of Federals passed unnoticed into Morgan's lines and killed him as he endeavored to rejoin his men.
This fascinating autograph book was signed by Morgan and his officers just two months before their spectacular escape from the Ohio Penitentiary in November, 1863. A number of the signatures are dated September, 1863, and most include the signer's rank, company, division and home town. Notable signers, besides Morgan, include Captains Thomas H. Hines, L.D. Hockersmith, Samuel B. Taylor, Ralph Sheldon, Jacob C. Bennett, and J.S. Magee. Others who signed the album include Richard C. Morgan (the general's brother), Colonel Joseph T. Tucker, Lieutenant Colonel J.B. McCreary, Colonel Basil Duke (author of A History of Morgan's Cavalry) and Colonel W.W. Ward. Two later additions, not collected in the prison, include Brigadier General Adam R. Johnson and Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner. An inscription found at the beginning of the album indicates that it was presented to Miss Lizzie Gray by S.B.T., or Samuel B. Taylor — one of the signers. Miss Gray was probably the sister of Norbonne G. Gray, whose signature is the last to appear.
Near-fine condition. A scarce and unusual Civil War item.