Rokeby Lock

Rokeby Lock. Consequences From Exchange Fire. Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's approximately 600 raiders arrived in Rokeby Lock late in the morning of July 23, 1863, having crossed the river from Eagleport., One column of raiders, led by Morgan himself, used a ferryboat to land near the Unity Farm Tavern on the hill upriver from the dam and lock. Someone in the tavern fired at the Confederates and shots were returned. Morgan and some officers entered the tavern and helped themselves to the liquor. Morgan ordered, "Don't leave good whiskey for the damn Yankees!", Morgan's other column arrived in Rokeby Lock after wading across the ford near the McElhiney Farm (known as "Morgan's Raid Farm"). A group of young boys and farmers fired their rifles at the advancing Confederates, killing Private Thomas Milton McGee, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry., The Confederates tied their dead comrade to a horse and rode up McElhiney Hollow from Rokeby Lock. They buried McGee in the hollow, carving his name and the date on a rock (now at the Morgan County Historical Society). Union militia arrived from Marietta on a sternwheeler and fired a cannon at the Confederates. The militia's cannon shot missed, but they succeeded in blasting a hole in the side of the Meloy barn., Picture Caption: , As the Confederates forded the river, an informal group of farmers fired on them from McElhiney Hollow, killing one of the raiders. The man was quickly buried in the hollow, and a tombstone was fabricated from a nearby rock.