e robust
constitution nor the adventurous and impetuous spirit which
characterized other members of his family. He was quiet and studious in
his habits, and although fond of the society of his friends, he shunned
every species of excitement. When failing health, and, perhaps, a
distaste for mercantile pursuits induced him to relinquish them, he
removed with his family to Kentucky (his son John was then four years
old), and purchased a farm near Lexington, upon which he lived until a
few years before his death.

John H. Morgan was reared in Kentucky, and lived in Lexington from his
eighteenth year until the fall of 1861, when he joined the Confederate
army. There was nothing in his boyhood, of which any record has been
preserved, to indicate the distinction he was to win, and neither
friends nor enemies can deduce from anecdotes of his youthful life
arguments of any value in support of the views which they respectively
entertain of his character. In this respect, also, he displayed his
singular originality of character, and he is about the only instance in
modern times (if biographies are to be believed) of a distinguished man
who had not, as a boy, some presentiment of his future, and did not
conduct himself accordingly.

When nineteen he enlisted for the "Mexican War" and was elected First
Lieutenant of Captain Beard's company, in Colonel Marshall's regiment of
cavalry. He served in Mexico for eighteen months, but did not, he used
to say, see much of "war" during that time. He was, however, at the
battle of Buena Vista, in which fight Colonel Marshall's regiment was
hotly engaged, and his company, which was ably led, suffered severely.
Soon after his return home he married Miss Bruce, of Lexington, a sweet
and lovely lady, who, almost from the day of her wedding, was a
confirmed and patient invalid and sufferer. Immediately after his
marriage, he entered energetically into business--was industrious,
enterprising and prosperous, and at the breaking out of the war in 1861,
he was conducting in Lexington two successful manufactories. Every
speculation and business enterprise in which he engaged succeeded, and
he had acquired a very handsome property. This he left, when he went
South, to the mercy of his enemies, making no provision whatever for its
protection, and apparently caring not at all what became of it. As he
left some debts unsettled, his loyal creditors soon disposed of it with
the aid of the catch-rebel attac