r armory, caught the eye of every visitor and announced,
"Our laws the commands of our Captain."

It was with the forty-five or fifty men of this company who unhesitating
followed his fortunes when he went to the Southern army, and a few other
kindred spirits who immediately attached themselves to him, before he
had won rank or fame, that Morgan began his career, and around them as a
nucleus he gathered his gallant command. Although thoroughly Southern in
sentiment, and frank to the last degree in its expression, the members
of the company, with one or two exceptions, made no effort to go South
until Captain Morgan signified his readiness to lead them, in this, as
in all else, they awaited his decision and directions. The extreme
illness of his wife, who died in July, 1861, required, during the early
summer, his constant presence in Lexington, and he did not determine to
act until after the troops, posted at Camp Dick Robinson and the Home
guard organizations, began to give unmistakable evidences of hostility
to all persons not "loyal."

When the order was issued for the disarming of the State-guard, Morgan
determined to save his guns at all hazards. The State-guard was by this
time virtually disbanded, many of its officers of high rank, elected
under the impression that they were Southern men, had declared for the
other side, and various other influences tended to cripple and
demoralize it. An officer then, of that body, who decided to resist the
edict, disarming his men and leaving them defenseless, in the reach of
armed and bitter political opponents, could look for little backing from
his comrades. His best chance was to make his way at once to the
Confederate lines in Southern Kentucky. This Morgan resolved to do.

On Friday night, September 20, 1861, he confided to a few of his most
reliable and trusted men his determination and plans, and taking the
guns from the armory, loaded them into two wagons and started them out
of Lexington on the Versailles road under a small guard. The men
composing this guard left on such short notice that few of them had time
to prepare and carry with them even necessary clothing, scarcely time to
take leave of their families. They marched out of town with their
cartridge-boxes belted on, their rifles on their shoulders, loaded, and
their bayonets fixed. A regiment of Federal troops was encamped that
night at the fair ground, about a mile from town, and many of the
officers and men