After the capture of Hartsville by Morgan, his services were recognized by his superiors to the extent that Mr.Davis, who was on a visit to Murfreesboro shortly after this engagement, signed and handed him his commission as Brigadier-General.General Hardee urged that the appointment be made as Major-General, but this was refused.Morgan's command had increased so that it was unwieldy as one body, and he decided to form it into two brigades.His command consisted now of seven regiments,--an aggregate force of over four thousand men.This he divided, placing three regiments under Colonel Basil W.Duke, in the first brigade, with a battery of four guns.The second brigade was placed in command of Colonel W.C.P.Breckenridge, and was composed of four regiments, with one three-inch Parrot gun and the two mountain howitzers.This force, trained as it had been, had no superior for the work it was ordered to do--raiding in the rear, destroying bridges, trestleworks, and capturing bridge-guards.So accustomed had they become to hardships of every nature, that it was almost incredible the amount of rough riding, scant fare, and loss of sleep these men endured.Proud of their past success, and emboldened by it to the belief that they were able to defeat any force that could overtake them, they at last found the country south of the Ohio too confined for them, and, aiming at grander feats, they passed north of that river, and, entering upon an entirely different kind of warfare, met with complete disaster.
On the morning of the 22d the command of Morgan took the road again for Kentucky.Bragg ordered the railroad in Rosecrans's rear to be broken, and his communication with Louisville destroyed.Morgan and his men were in most excellent spirits at the prospect of another raid into that State.He had with him the pick of the youth of the State of Kentucky.On the 24th Morgan's command had their first skirmish with a battalion of Michigan troops, which resulted in the loss to Morgan of seventeen of his men and two of his officers.
On the 25th Colonel Hobson had an engagement with Johnson's regiment near Munfordville, in which the rebels suffered a loss of some fifty men killed and wounded.Morgan then attacked the stockade at Bacon Creek, held by a force of 100 men, who made a most stubborn and determined resistance, inflicting severe loss upon the attacking party, and demonstrating the worth of a stockade properly built and efficiently manned.These stockades were built with heavy upright timber ten or twelve feet high.They were surrounded by ditches and pierced for musketry.Assailants, when right at the base, were still far from taking them.It was supposed that they would not resist artillery, and, in fact, they were not built with the expectation of doing so.If the garrison of the stockade succeeded in driving off the guerilla parties that swarmed through the country, it fully accomplished its purpose.This stockade successfully resisted the heavy artillery firing brought to bear upon it, even when a number of shells exploded within the work.After making such a brave defiance, it is to be regretted that they did not hold out to the last, and refuse to surrender at all.The commanding officer had rejected a number of demands made on him to surrender;when Morgan came up in person, and in his own name offering them liberal terms, they surrendered.Morgan then burnt the bridge across Bacon Creek, and pressed on to Nolin, fourteen miles beyond, where the stockade was surrendered without a fight.The bridge here also was destroyed.Morgan's division, on the 27th, captured Elizabethtown, after a severe engagement with the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith--a detachment of some six hundred infantry.Smith sent Morgan a demand for him to surrender, which Morgan declined, and returned the compliment by making the same demand on Smith, who also declined.After an engagement lasting some six hours, Morgan's artillery rendered the building Smith's command was fighting in untenable, and he then surrendered.The next day Morgan, moving along the railroad, destroyed it thoroughly.
The principal object of the expedition was the great trestleworks at Muldraugh's Hills, only a short distance apart.The garrison defending the lower trestle, 600 strong, was captured by the Second Brigade.The First Brigade captured the garrison at the upper trestle--200 strong.These trestles were respectively 80 and 90feet high, and each of them 500 feet long.They were thoroughly destroyed.Thus was accomplished the objects of the raid, but the destruction of these bridges--trestle and railroad--did not accomplish the design contemplated by Bragg.Rosecrans's prompt movement from Nashville on the rebels encamped at Murfreesboro, and the result of that campaign, rendered Morgan's raid a failure in the main, as Bragg intended the road should be so thoroughly destroyed as to prevent the further occupation of Nashville by our army.The loss to the Federals was an exceedingly severe one, and had Rosecrans remained at Nashville inactive all the winter of 1862, Bragg's designs would have met with a greater degree of success.
On the 29th, Colonel Harlan with his brigade attacked and routed Morgan's troopers at Rolling Fork of Salt River, and drove them to Bardstown.While Morgan was moving around Lebanon, Colonel Hoskins's command attacked him and captured 150 men.Morgan passed between the forces sent against him, showing again that it is impossible to catch cavalry with infantry.Morgan then commenced his retreat form the State.On the morning of January 1, 1863, as his command was passing Columbia, 115 miles in an air-line from Murfreesboro, his men reported hearing distinctly the roar of heavy cannonading in that direction.On the 2d Morgan crossed the Cumberland, and felt safe once more from all pursuit.
On December 21st, General Carter moved with three regiments of cavalry toward East Tennessee, from Lebanon, Ky., to raid on the rebel line of communication.Crossing the Cumberland Mountains forty miles northeast of Cumberland Gap, he passed through Southwestern Virginia and Tennessee to Carter's Station, destroying the Holston and Watauga bridges and several miles of railroad.He then leisurely returned to Kentucky by the same route he had advanced.
