Blue Ash

Blue Ash. "You Can't Stop an Army". On the morning of July 14, 1863, John Craig Hunt and his ten-year-old son, Wilson, watched from their Blue Ash farmhouse as Confederate raiders led six horses from the barn. When the boy asked his father about his intentions, the father replied, "There's not much that I can do. You can't stop an army!" , Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's cavalry had separated into groups of between two and twenty men in search of food, water, and fresh horses. Eight hours later, Union Brigadier General Edward Hobson's forces arrived in Blue Ash to forage for new mounts. To their dismay, the new arrivals discovered that Morgan's men had confiscated nearly all useful horses within a three-mile radius. , The Raiders Throw Out a Net , Morgan had sent his troopers on multiple routes from Sharonville to conceal their crossing of the Little W. Duke's 1st Brigade marched southeast toward Road, and Zig Zag Road. To screen his left flank, Sharonville along the wagon paths now known Miami River and to maximize foraging. Colonel Basil Montgomery by way of Creek Road, Glendale-Milford Duke sent large detachments northeast from as Lebanon Road, Kemper Road, and Cornell Road. Morgan led the other column, composed of Colonel Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson's 2nd Brigade, along Reading Pike and Cooper Road to Carpenter's Run Schoolhouse, then south on Plainfield Turnpike through East Sycamore (now Rossmoyne) to the rendezvous at Montgomery. , Morgan's Great Raid , Modern historians have listed Morgan's Indiana-Ohio Raid as among the top 20 in world history. Though Morgan's "Great" Raid did not affect the outcome of the Civil War, it set a significant precedent. The German Blitzkrieg of World War II and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 extrapolated from the "lightning war" tactics of John Hunt Morgan., Morgan's Raid counts among the longest raids in the Civil War and reached the farthest north of any Confederate force from the contiguous southern states. The raid included the longest nonstop cavalry march in American military history (85 miles in 35 hours, from Sunman, Indiana, to Williamsburg, Ohio). Finally it was the largest military action of the Civil War in Indiana and Ohio., [Photo captions] , Top left: John Craig Hunt and his young son watched helplessly from an upstairs window of their home as some of Morgan's Raiders took six of their horses. The Hunts would recover only two of the animals. , Middle left: John Craig Hunt and his wife, Eliza Bowen Hunt , During their ride around Cincinnati, Morgan's cavalrymen confiscated one of Jonathan T. Conklin's horses. Ohio government later offered Conklin $125 in reparation. , Bottom left: As Confederate Colonel Duke's brigade marched by Archibald Johnston's house on the morning of July 14, the raiders confiscated a horse from his father's nearby stable., Text: Stephen Kelley and David L. Mowery , Illustrations: Bev Kirk