Morgan Enters Indiana

Morgan Enters Indiana. . On Tuesday, July 7, 1863, the first units of General Morgan’s cavalry command arrived at Brandenburg, Kentucky. Their mission was to capture boats to be used for ferrying Morgan’s two thousand men across the 800-1,000-yard-wide Ohio River into Indiana. Promptly, two steamboats were captured, the J.T. McCombs, a mail boat, and the Alice Dean, a passenger boat., In the early morning of the 8th, Morgan arrived at Brandenburg with the main body of his command. Just as the ferrying operation got underway, artillery shells fired by the Indiana Home Guard were finding a mark on the Kentucky shore. Morgan ordered two regiments to board the captured steamers and quickly proceed across the Ohio. The first Raiders stepped onto Indiana soil at Morvin’s Landing. Others followed as the sporadic exchange of cannon fire ceased, with little damage done. Union gunboats approached the scene but were driven back by Morgan’s artillery fire. By midnight, all of Morgan’s men and horses were across. The Alice Dean was set afire, but the J.T. McCombs was left unharmed because the boat’s captain was a friend of one of Morgan’s officers., The pursuing 4,000 Union troops of General Edward Hobson completed the crossing of the Ohio River 26 hours behind Morgan, at 2 a.m. on July 10.