Civil War Camp at Marrowbone

Civil War Camp at Marrowbone. . Both Union and Confederate troops used Marrowbone as a camp several times during the Civil War. In mid-February 1863, Federal 1st Kentucky Cavalrymen under Col. Frank Wolford encamped at Marrowbone. During the spring of 1863, detachments of at least three of Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s regiments, under Col. D. Howard Smith, Col. A. R. Johnson, and Col. D.W. Chenault, respectively, operated in and around Marrowbone and Mud Camp Ford, capturing a mill and operating it for the rebel army., In June 1863, Gen. Edward H. Hobson was placed in charge of a Union camp at Marrowbone. Rumors were afloat that the notorious rebel, Gen. John Hunt Morgan, was planning another raid into Kentucky., Morgan’s forces crossed the Cumberland on July 1 and 2, fighting a skirmish between here and Norris Branch on July 2. Brig. Shortly after that engagement, Brig. Gen. James M. Shackelford’s brigade arrived to support Hobson. Immediately, several cavalry and infantry regiments were dispatched, under Shackelford’s command, in pursuit of Morgan., Then, the unfathomable happened. Three miles out the Burkesville Road Hobson’s superior officer, Gen. Henry M. Judah, ordered Shackelford to halt and return to Marrowbone. Col. Richard C. Jacob’s 9th Kentucky Cavalry was sent to guard the road and to intercept the Federal cavalrymen and turn them back., Meanwhile, Morgan continued to force his way north. On July 3 he turned back the few Federal defenders at Columbia, on July 4 he bypassed a Federal position at Green River Bridge, and on July 5 he secured the surrender of Union forces at Lebanon., General Judah did nothing. His force, immobilized by high water, waited to be ferried across the Green River at Vaughn’s Ferry in Green County. The responsibility of pursuing Morgan was given to General Hobson, In the months of January and February 1864, the 13th Kentucky Cavalry, USA, occupied the camp at Marrowbone while searching for rebel guerillas. In February they captured Capt. Littleton T. Richardson and several of Champ Ferguson’s men near here. . This historical marker was erected by Kentucky Heartland Civil War Trails Commission. It is Near Marrowbone in Cumberland County Kentucky