ontend, and the results he effected are well
understood, it will be conceded that his reputation with the Southern
soldiery was not undeserved, and that to rank with the best of the many
active and excellent cavalry officers of the West, to have had,
confessedly, no equal among them except in Forrest, argues him to have
possessed no common ability. The design of this work may in part fail,
because of the inability of one so little accustomed to the labors of
authorship to present his subject in the manner that it deserves; but
the theme is one sure to be interesting and impressive however treated,
and materials may, in this way be preserved for abler pens and more
extensive works.

The apparent egotism in the constant use of the first person will, I
trust, be excused by the explanation that I write of matters and events
known almost entirely from personal observation, reports of subordinate
officers to myself, or personal knowledge of reports made directly to
General Morgan, and that, serving for a considerable period as his
second in command, it was necessarily my duty to see to the execution of
his plans, and I enjoyed a large share of his confidence.

For the spirit in which it is written, I have only to say that I have
striven to be candid and accurate; to that sort of impartiality which is
acquired at the expense of a total divestiture of natural feeling, I can
lay no claim.

A Southern man, once a Confederate soldier--always thoroughly Southern
in sentiments and feeling, I can, of course, write only a Southern
account of what I saw in the late war, and as such what is herein
written must be received.

CHAPTER II.

John Hunt Morgan was born at Huntsville, Alabama, on the first day of
June, 1825. His father, Calvin C. Morgan, was a native of Virginia, and
a distant relative of Daniel Morgan, the rebel general of revolutionary
fame. In early manhood, Mr. Morgan followed the tide of emigration
flowing from Virginia to the West, and commenced life as a merchant in
Alabama. In 1823, he married the daughter of John W. Hunt, of Lexington,
Kentucky, one of the wealthiest and most successful merchants of the
State, and one whose influence did much to develope the prosperity of
that portion of it in which he resided.

Mr. Morgan is described by all who knew him as a gentleman whom it was
impossible to know and not to respect and esteem. His character was at
once firm and attractive, but he possessed neither th