One of Morgan's Men. John M. Porter
was won on the first day and lost on the second, and the army again fell back to Corinth, from which place it had gone to battle. To describe the conditions of the roads and the country is not my purpose, more than to say that the route of the retreating army from Shiloh to the town of Corinth, some twelve or thirteen miles distant, was the worst that perhaps ever was traveled.15
4
WE STRUCK OUT ON
OUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY
John M. Porter reached Corinth, Mississippi, although he never was able to join John Hunt Morgan's command there or even participate in the Battle of Shiloh, where General Johnston was mortally wounded and the Confederate Army of the Mississippi was hurled back after two days of fierce fighting. After the Army of the Mississippi withdrew back to Corinth and on to Tupelo, Porter set out to find Morgan. John Hunt Morgan had already left the Army of the Mississippi after the Battle of Shiloh and had proceeded to central Tennessee, around Murfreesboro. He then rode on to Chattanooga, and soon moved to Knoxville to confer with the commander of the Confederate Department of East Tennessee, Major General Edmund Kirby Smith. Informed by Smith of the likelihood of an invasion of Kentucky later that summer, Morgan was instructed to enter Kentucky for the purpose of destroying rail lines, telegraph lines, and government stores in the central part of the state and capturing and forcing the withdrawal of as many Federal troops as possible, all to support a Confederate invasion, the objective of which was to hold central Kentucky.
Now commanding the Second Kentucky Cavalry (C.S.A.) Regiment, along with a battalion of Texans under Major Richard M. Gano, newly commissioned Colonel John Hunt Morgan left Knoxville and moved to Sparta, Tennessee. A regiment of Georgia partisan rangers under Major F. M. Nix was added to the command. From Sparta Morgan moved to Tompkinsville, Kentucky, and arrived at Glasgow on July 10, where he destroyed government stores along the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) Glasgow Branch. Morgan pressed on to Lebanon, tearing up L&N tracks, bridges, and rolling stock and seizing and burning government stores along the Lebanon Branch on July 12.
From Lebanon, Morgan moved his command to Spnngfield and Harrodsburg and on to Lawrenceburg. Crossing the Kentucky River at Shryock ‘s Ferry, Morgan's command entered Versailles on July 14. The next day, Morgan and his men rode to Midway, where they destroyed tracks, bridges, and telegraph wires of the Lexington and Frankfort Railroad. They then rode on to Georgetown, skirting Lexington because of a large Federal force there.
All the while, John M. Porter was trying to locate Morgan and his command. Porter embarked upon his odyssey while Morgan was still in central Tennessee. Porter journeyed from north Alabama all the way to central Kentucky. He was ultimately joined in Kentucky, near Winchester, by Lieutenant Thomas H. Hines, the Butler County native and kinsman who would become his lifelong friend and law partner after the war. Along the way, they found refuge in the homes of those who sympathized with the Confederate cause.
It was at Georgetown, on July 15, that Porter joined Company C of the Second Kentucky Cavalry (C.S.A.) in Morgan's command; he would ride with Morgan for the remainder of his military service. Morgan's next target—and Porter's first pitched battle alongside Morgan's men—would be Cynthiana, an important rail center on the Kentucky Central Railroad between Covington and Lexington.
A few days after the Battle of Shiloh, Andy Kuykendall, some others and I boarded, for the time being, with a man by the name of Davenport, near Jacinto, Mississippi. William L. Dulaney was one of our party at this place. After we had spent perhaps two weeks at that house, Andy Kuykendall and I rode to Tuscumbia, Alabama, and there we met the Texas Rangers, the Eighth Texas, Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry's old regiment, and in the same vicinity was Colonel Benjamin Hardin Helm's First Kentucky Cavalry (C.S.A.). The First Kentucky had campaigned through Tennessee and as far as Cave City, Kentucky, having left the army at Corinth while we were at the Davenports', which fact prevented our being with it, and which was the cause of our being away from Morgan's command until about July of that year.1
When we arrived at Tuscumbia, we found the Eighth Texas Cavalry and First Kentucky Cavalry regiments were about ready to move across the Tennessee River at Lamb's Ferry for the purpose of ridding that part of Alabama of the Federals, who, under Brigadier General Ormsby M. Mitchel, had occupied it, and were at that time traversing the whole country about Florence, Athens and Rogersville. Andy and I, at once, took our place in the ranks of a company of the Texas regiment, to which Andy's brother belonged, and the command proceeded to the Tennessee River. By means of an improvised boat, we succeeded, in about two days, in crossing the river which, at that point, was quite wide. About two miles from the river we camped, and a scouting party was sent out for some distance, and it had a considerable fight with the enemy in which some Texans and Kentuckians were killed and wounded. Captain Charles T. Noel, Company C, First Kentucky Cavalry, of Daviess County was killed there.2
A few days later, the commands all advanced into the country infested with the enemy, leaving a small guard at camp for the purpose of protecting the boats and securing a way of retreat if it became necessary. The object, however, was not accomplished so fully as was desired, for a very large force of the enemy came upon those of us who were left at camp, and dispersed us to the four winds. The coming of the Federals was so sudden that time was not given to re-cross the river and, as a matter of course, after a fair show of the fight with little of the reality, we retreated down the river in the direction of Florence. There was no one to command, no one to obey, and, in short, it was a stampede. We did not cross the river, but were scattered around through the country in squads of from two to six just as we happened to be thrown together.
Andy and another person and I were together, and, for a day or so, were in the woods and roads and everywhere, first trying to find out, if we could, where the Yankees were, and, next thing, finding them uncomfortably close. At one time we ran upon a few of them at a short turn of the road. Both parties were alarmed and both retreated in “good order.” At another time they gave chase and pursued us for a mile or more at full speed. No one, I think, but Andy and myself were thus chased. Finding it not in our power to find the main body of the command, the whereabouts of which we had not heard for some days, we determined to strike out on our own responsibility in the direction of Tennessee, for at that particular time, it was useless to remain where we were and almost as useless to attempt to return toward the Tennessee River.
We did not know where Morgan was, but expected to find him in middle Tennessee. In this we were disappointed, however. We fell into the hands of the Yankees at Pulaski, Tennessee, and were detained for a day or so, when we came on to Nashville by way of Columbia and Franklin. We had determined to go directly to Kentucky to see our friends, and had attired ourselves as citizens so as to pass unmolested. After some days riding, we got to Logan County, Kentucky, where, after night, we proceeded in order to prevent anyone from seeing us. This was, I am of the opinion, some time about the middle or latter part of May 1862. Andy and I remained at our homes for a day or two, and then we determined to leave and go to the central part of the State, Clark County, where Andy had relatives.3
Attiring ourselves in the dress of citizens, we started from our homes for our destination. The entire State through which our route lay was full of Federal soldiers. Our journey was through Warren, Barren, Hart, Green, Taylor, Marion, Boyle, Jessamine, Fayette, and Clark Counties. Passing ourselves, sometimes, as stock traders and sometimes as agents for purchasing supplies for the Yankee army, as the emergencies suited us, we made our trip without being arrested, although we encountered frequent bodies of soldiers. One night I remember we stayed at a tavern not far from Dix River Bridge, where there was a company of cavalry which regarded us suspiciously.4
The covered bridge over the Dix River at King's Mill. John M. Porter crossed the bridge on his way to Bryantsville, Kentucky, three miles distant, and Lexington to join Morgan's command. (J. Winston Coleman, Jr. Photographic Collection, Transylvania University Library.)