Montgomery, Ohio, July 14, 1863
Mort Künstler is the Official Artist for the Ohio Bicentennial Commission.
It was one of the boldest cavalry operations of the Civil War. In July of 1863, General John Hunt Morgan led 2,500 Confederate cavalrymen on a daring, three-week raid through Indiana and Ohio. Morgan and his men eluded pursuing Federal cavalry, diverted Federal troops and resources and delayed important Northern military operations. In the beleaguered South, news of Morgan’s Raid boosted morale.
Morgan and his cavalrymen were relentlessly pursued by determined Federal cavalry commanded by Generals Edward H. Hobson and Henry M. Judah. They met staunch resistance by Midwestern civilians throughout the length of their raid. In Montgomery, Ohio – a village near Cincinnatti – Morgan’s Raiders received a chilly reception from defiant townspeople. With Northern forces closing in, Morgan’s harried troops pushed on across Ohio. Five days after Morgan’s men entered Montgomery, Hobson’s and Judah’s Federal troops overtook the Rebel raiders at Buffington Island, Ohio and captured approximately 700 Southern soldiers.
Morgan and his men raced northward, but were finally cornered in northeastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. There, on July 26, 1863, Morgan was forced to surrender his command near West Point, Ohio - barely 70 miles from Lake Erie. Although Morgan would daringly escape from imprisonment and return to Confederate command, he would be mortally wounded on another raid. In the South, his exploits would become part of the legacy of the Lost Cause. In Ohio, generations to come would recall the days when the citizens of the Buckeye State defied the Rebel Raiders in the alarming time of Morgan’s Ohio Raid.
Mort Künstler’s Comments
Early in the morning of July 14, 1863, Morgan’s Raiders entered town from the south on Montgomery Road, and turned east into the rising sun onto Remington Road. They proudly carried the first national flag of the Confederacy and the Kentucky state flag. The Ohio state flag flies from an open window in the distance and the “Stars and Stripes” is being defiantly unfurled by a woman in the window of the center building. General Morgan is seen in the center of the painting – mounted on his big bay horse, Glencoe, his revolver in hand and wearing a plumed hat. Directly behind him is his brother-in-law, Colonel Basil W. Duke, who is firing in the air to chase a determined and stoic citizen off the road. All the other faces of the Confederates are based on existing photographs of the men, some of which were taken in prison after their capture.<br><b>950 Limited Edition Signed and Numbered<br>Image Size: 16 3/4” x 29” <b>