Miamiville

Miamiville. Derailment of the "Kilgour". Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's 2,000 cavalrymen, laden with artillery and wagons, began fording the Little Miami River around 7 am on July 14, 1863. Scouts rode ahead to establish defensive perimeters. About half a mile southeast of Porter's Mill Ford, they sabotaged the Little Miami Railroad by wedging railroad ties into a cattle gap and severing telegraph wires., As a passenger train, pulled by the locomotive the "Kilgour" , chugging south toward Camp Dennison with 115 raw Union recruits , passed Dangerous Crossing, the Confederate raiders fired shots. Picking up steam, the train rounded a blind curve and struck the wedged ties at full speed., "There lay the monster floundering in the field like a fish out of water, with nothing but the tender attached," recalled Lieutenant Kelion Peddicord of Morgan's scouts. "Her coupling must have broken, for the passenger carriages and express were still on the track." John Redman, the locomotive engineer, was severely hurt in the derailment, while fireman Cornelius Conway was killed. The civilians and recruits on board sustained only minor injuries., After evacuating the passengers, Morgan's men set fire to the train cars and marched their captives to Jacob Thompson's house. There Morgan paroled the prisoners, telling them to walk the rest of the way to Camp Dennison., Morgan's Raid in Ohio , The Civil War, which most thought would be over quickly, had bogged down into a long fight between the states. Heavy fighting was going on in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and in Vicksburg, Mississippi, when Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan brought the war to the northern home front. Racing through Indiana, he crossed into southwestern Ohio on July 13, 1863, and brought more than 2,000 veteran raiders with him. Their mission in crossing the state was to occupy and divert as many Union troops as possible. Department of the Ohio commander Maior General Ambrose Burnside sought to stop Morgan, but that would prove a much harder job than he expected., [Photo captions] , Top left: Morgan's scouts derailed a passenger train, pulled by the "Kilgour," that carried Union army recruits, including a regimental brass band. Equipped with only a few sidearms, the recruits surrendered without a shot. , Bottom left map: After sunrise July 14, 1863, while Duke's brigade escorted the wagon train from Sharonville, , (1) Johnson's brigade was turned away by Proctor's Union forces at the Crossroads Skirmish and forced through Montgomery. (2) Morgan's Division crossed the river at Porter's Mill Ford as scouts (3) derailed the "Kilgour" and (4) captured the Madisonville Pike Bridge. (5) Duke's attack at the Little Miami Railroad Bridge bought time for Johnson's brigade to (6) negotiate Dangerous Crossing, (7) fight off the Loveland Militia, and send the wagons through Ward's Corner. (8) Before leaving the area in the early afternoon, Morgan plundered Camp Shady. (9) Hobson's Union cavalry made camp nearby about 9 pm. , Text: David L. Mowery , Illustration and Map: Bev Kirk