John H. Morgan Surrender Site | |
Nearest city | West Point, Ohio |
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Coordinates | 40°41′53″N80°44′50″W / 40.69806°N 80.74722°W |
Area | 0.1 acres (0.040 ha) |
Built | 1863 |
NRHP reference No. | 73001401 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 23, 1973 |
The John H. Morgan Surrender Site is the place where, during the American Civil War, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, the leader of Confederate troops responsible for Morgan's Raid, surrendered to Union troops following the Battle of Salineville. The site is located at a crossroads between the villages of Gavers and West Point in Columbiana County, Ohio, about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1973 for its military significance. [1] [2]
Morgan reportedly surrendered under what was called the "Surrender Tree". The location was at the northernmost point where a Confederate unit pierced U.S.-controlled territory during the war, [2] except for the St. Albans Raid in Vermont. [3]
In June 1863, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan took command of a force of 2,500 Confederate men in Kentucky. The purpose of the detachment was to recruit volunteers from the border state and distract U.S. General Ambrose Burnside, who was planning an offensive into Tennessee. Morgan's superior, General Braxton Bragg, specifically ordered Morgan not to cross the Ohio River into Union-controlled territory.
Morgan disobeyed his orders, and from June 11 to July 26, 1863, his troops conducted the raid in an area that ranged from Tennessee to northern Ohio. Morgan ransacked the countryside and disrupted telegraph and railroad lines as he moved north. [2] He was pursued by a division of U.S. cavalry commanded by Brig. General Edward H. Hobson, who, together with reinforcements dispatched by Maj. General Ambrose Burnside, caught up to Morgan's force at Buffington Island, which fled northward. [4]
In Columbiana County, fears increased as Morgan's Raid approached. There were exaggerated reports that his force numbered as many as 10,000 men. The day before the surrender, residents of Lisbon, Ohio, mobilized when they heard that Morgan was in Salineville in Columbiana County.
The final armed engagement of the raid occurred around 8 a.m. July 26 near the border of Carroll, Columbiana, and Jefferson counties.
As Morgan's troops approached, the New Lisbon militia dragged an old cannon from the Mexican War to block the road to town from the south.
At around 11 a.m., word reached town that the rebels had routed the militia and were coming into the town. Though the report was false, the militia members at the cannon allowed Morgan's army to pass unchallenged because they were afraid to engage them. [2]
Morgan encountered Capt. James Burbeck, one of Lisbon's militia commanders, along the road.[ citation needed ] Morgan convinced Burbeck to allow him to surrender his command, provided Burbick promised to take the sick and wounded soldiers and allow Morgan and his officers to be paroled so they could return home to Kentucky. However, Major George W. Rue's troops had gathered at Morgan's front and rear. Morgan sent a flag of truce with one of his officers to inform Rue that Morgan had already surrendered to Burbeck under favorable terms. [5] [6]
Rue replied that he did not know who Captain Burbeck was and demanded that Morgan surrender to him immediately.
An hour later, Brig. Gen. James M. Shackelford arrived and discussed surrender terms with Morgan. When informed of Burbick's parole of Morgan and his officers, Shackelford said it was "not only absurd and ridiculous, but unfair and illegal." [2]
Until the end of his life, Shackelford took credit for capturing Morgan since Rue was under his command. Rue also continued to take credit privately. [7]
In July and August 1863, Ohio Governor David Tod led an inquiry into Morgan's surrender. Governor Tod concluded that Captain Burbridge was actually James Burbick, a private citizen of New Lisbon, Ohio, who had never served as an officer in the Ohio Militia. As such, Governor Tod ruled that he had no authority over Morgan and that Morgan's surrender to U.S. Army forces stood.
Morgan and more than 60 of his officers were imprisoned in the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. On the night of November 27, 1863, Morgan and six others escaped from the prison, with a plan originated by Thomas Hines. [2]
John Hunt Morgan was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. In April 1862, he raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, fought at Shiloh, and then launched a costly raid in Kentucky, which encouraged Braxton Bragg's invasion of that state. He also attacked General William Rosecrans's supply lines. In July 1863, he set out on a 1,000-mile raid into Indiana and Ohio, taking hundreds of prisoners. But after most of his men had been intercepted by U.S. Army gunboats, Morgan surrendered at Salineville, Ohio, the northernmost point ever reached by uniformed Confederates. Morgan carried out the diversionary "Morgan's Raid" against orders, which gained no tactical advantage for the Confederacy while losing the regiment. Morgan escaped prison, but his credibility was so low that he was restricted to minor operations. He was killed at Greeneville, Tennessee, in September 1864. Morgan was the brother-in-law of Confederate general A. P. Hill. Various schools and a memorial are dedicated to him.
The Army of the Ohio was the name of two Union armies in the American Civil War. The first army became the Army of the Cumberland and the second army was created in 1863.
Morgan's Raid was a diversionary incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Union states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11 to July 26, 1863. It is named for the commander of the Confederate troops, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. Although it caused temporary alarm in the North, the raid failed.
The Battle of Corydon was a minor engagement that took place July 9, 1863, just south of Corydon, which had been the original capital of Indiana until 1825, and was the county seat of Harrison County. The attack occurred during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War as a force of 2,500 cavalry invaded the North in support of the Tullahoma Campaign. It was the only pitched battle of the Civil War that occurred in Indiana, and no battle has occurred within Indiana since.
The Battle of Salineville occurred July 26, 1863, near Salineville, Ohio, during the American Civil War. U.S. Brig. Gen. James M. Shackelford destroyed Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan's remaining Confederate cavalry and captured Morgan, ending Morgan's Raid. It was the northernmost military action involving an official command of the Confederate States Army.
The Department of the Monongahela was a military department created by the United States War Department during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
The Battle of Buffington Island, also known as the St. Georges Creek Skirmish, was an American Civil War engagement in Meigs County, Ohio, and Jackson County, West Virginia, on July 19, 1863, during Morgan's Raid. The largest battle in Ohio during the war, Buffington Island contributed to the capture of the Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, who was fleeing U.S. Army soldiers across the Ohio River at a ford opposite Buffington Island.
During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of Southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats and openly opposed President Abraham Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years.
Edward Henry Hobson was a merchant, banker, politician, tax collector, railroad executive, and an officer in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War and American Civil War. He is most known for his determined pursuit of the Confederates during Morgan's Raid.
Henry Moses Judah was a career officer in the United States Army, serving during the Mexican–American War, Indian Wars, and American Civil War. He is most remembered for his role in helping thwart Morgan's Raid in 1863 and for leading a disastrous attack during the Battle of Resaca.
The Department of the Ohio was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Northern states near the Ohio River.
The Knoxville campaign was a series of American Civil War battles and maneuvers in East Tennessee during the fall of 1863 designed to secure control of the city of Knoxville and with it the railroad that linked the Confederacy east and west, and position the First Corps under Longstreet for return to the Army of Northern Virginia. Union Army forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville, Tennessee, and Confederate States Army forces under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet were detached from Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga to prevent Burnside's reinforcement of the besieged Federal forces there. Ultimately, Longstreet's Siege of Knoxville ended when Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led elements of the Army of the Tennessee and other troops to Burnside's relief after Union troops had broken the Confederate siege of Chattanooga. Although Longstreet was one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's best corps commanders in the East in the Army of Northern Virginia, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to penetrate the Knoxville defenses and take the city.
Jonas Hartzell McGowan was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.
Wayne Township is one of the eighteen townships of Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 797.
West Point is an unincorporated community in northern Madison Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. A former coal town, it lies along U.S. Route 30 at its intersection with State Routes 45 and 518, it has the ZIP code 44492. It is part of the Salem micropolitan area.
During the American Civil War, the Ohio River port city of Cincinnati, Ohio, played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army. It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio, which was charged with the defense of the region, as well as directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee.
The September 7–9, 1863 fall of the Cumberland Gap was a victory for Union forces under the command of Ambrose Burnside during his campaign for Knoxville. The bloodless engagement cost the Confederates 2,300 men captured and control of the Cumberland Gap.
James William Reilly was a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the state of Ohio who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He commanded a brigade and then a division in the Army of the Ohio in several campaigns in the Western Theater of operations.
James Murrell Shackelford was a lawyer, judge, and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He has the distinction of having captured Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan in mid-1863, effectively ending "Morgan's Raid".
The 107th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment was raised as part of the call for 300,000 volunteers in the summer and fall of 1862. It was organized on September 4, 1862, at Camp Butler near Springfield, Illinois, and was composed of men from DeWitt, Piatt, and Williamson Counties in central and southern Illinois.
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