Morgan's Men Association, Inc.
History
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"The men pledged fidelity and affection for each other for as long as they lived and resolved that the memory of our illustrious and beloved leader shall ever be as indelibly stamped upon the tablets of our hearts as his name is written on the undying page of history."
Morgan's Men met annually at least through 1883 when the reunion was held in Woodland Park in Lexington before a crowd of over 1,200 veterans and friends. Prominent Morgan's Men who led the reunion included Kentucky Governor James McCreary and Brig. Gen. Basil W. Duke. The guest of honor was Gen. Morgan's only surviving child, Johnnie Hunt Morgan Caldwell. In 1898, the Association met in Cincinnati, Ohio, as guests of their old foe, the 7th Ohio Cavalry. Such was the pride associated with riding with Morgan and fighting against him.
In 1903, at Parks Hill, in Nicholas County, Kentucky, the group was reorganized with a membership of 260 veterans. However, after that date the number of members slowly diminished as death took its toll. At the 1916 reunion it was noted that only 167 of the veterans who met in 1903 were still alive. In 1932, the Confederate Veteran magazine reported that just nine of the members were able to attend that year's meeting in Lexington and one of that number died just three days afterward. Although no formal records remain, it is assumed that the 1932 meeting was one of the last. Incredibly, it was not until 1953 that the last surviving member died.
Crowd of ten thousand at Gen. Morgan statue
dedication in Lexington, KY 1910
The officers of the Morgan's Men Association included some of the South's most prominent men. Gen. Basil W. Duke served as president from its formation until his death in 1916. Others who served as leaders were Kentucky Governor James B. McCreary, Kentucky Lt. Governor James E. Cantrill, Dr. John A. Lewis of Georgetown College, Col. D. Howard Smith, and Kentucky State Auditor, M. C. Saufley. Saufley noted that "I have never seen a man who belonged to Morgan's command who was not proud of his service." Gen. Basil Duke proudly proclaimed at the same reunion that "nothing but death can remove the pride I feel in Morgan's Men". Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge, responding to a standing ovation, asked the audience to remember him "simply as one of Morgan's Men".
"Black Bess" and Gen. Morgan
If one singled out the common bond that cemented these men together, it was the overwhelming pride they felt as Confederate soldiers who rode with the best, with Gen. John Hunt Morgan. However, as these men died the pride was left to be perpetuated in the dry pages of history books and on the cold lifeless marble of the Confederate monuments.
Morgan's Men as POWs
Memories have faded and today many of the descendants of those "Rebel Raiders" hardly know their grandfathers and great-grandfathers even served at all. The re-establishment of the Morgan's Men Association is an attempt to change that, to re-establish the pride, to again celebrate our heritage as "Morgan's Men". The Modern reorganization of the Morgan's Men Association is an association of members of the Morgan family and the descendants, both direct and collateral, of the Confederate soldiers who served with Gen. Morgan, and other interested persons whose common goal is to preserve a positive and accurate image of Morgan and his men, and to insure that the exploits of these brave men shall always be revered by the people of Kentucky and the rest of the nation.