l Morgan and
his soldiers. So persistently have these accusations been made, that at
one time an avowal of "belonging to Morgan" was thought, even in
Kentucky, tantamount to a confession of murder and highway robbery. To
this day, doubtless, the same impression prevails in the North, and
yet, when it is considered how it was produced, it is surprising that it
should or could last so long.

The newspapers are of course responsible for it, as for every other
opinion entertained at any time by the Northern public.

It will repay any one who will take the trouble to examine the files of
these papers printed during the war, if he desires a curious
entertainment. Among many willful misrepresentations of Morgan's as well
as of other Confederate commands, many statements palpably false, and
regarding events of which the writers could not possibly have obtained
correct information, will be found under the most astounding captions,
proclaiming the commission of "unheard of atrocities" and "guerrilla
outrages," accounts of Morgan having impressed horses or taken forage
and provisions from Union men, while highly facetious descriptions of
house-burning, jewelry snatching, and a thorough sacking of premises are
chronicled, without one word of condemnation, under the heading of
"frolics of the boys in blue." In thus referring to the manner in which
the Northern newspapers mentioned the respective combatants whose deeds
their reporters pretended to record, I have no wish to provoke a renewal
of the wordy war.

The Southern journals were undoubtedly sufficiently denunciatory,
although they did not always seem to consider a bad deed sanctified
because done by their friends. Nor have I any intention of denying that
inexcusable excesses were committed at various times by men of Morgan's
command. I freely admit that we had men in our ranks whose talents and
achievements could have commanded respect even among the "Bummers."
There were others, too, whose homes had been destroyed and property
"confiscated," whose families had been made to "feel the war," who were
incited by an unholy spirit of revenge to commit acts as well worth
relation, as any of those for which the "weekly" of his native township
has duly lauded the most industrious Federal raider, actuated by a
legitimate desire of pleasure or gain. It will not be difficult to prove
that such practices met with rebuke from General Morgan and his
officers, and that they were not chara