Raiding with Morgan
Page 16
The feelings of the above gentlemen as they received these telegrams canbetter be imagined than described. The one to General Boyle must have cuthim to the quick as he read it. To know how completely Morgan hadoutwitted him was like gall and wormwood to him.
From Somerset Morgan halted his command at Livingston, Tennessee, to takea much-needed rest. Never did men need it more. They had accomplished oneof the most astonishing feats in the annals of American warfare. No wonderthe name of Morgan struck terror to the hearts of the Federals. Morgan inhis report of his raid sums it up as follows:
"I left Knoxville on the 4th day of this month with about nine hundredmen, and returned to Livingston on the 28th instant with nearly twelvehundred, having been absent just twenty-four days, during which time Itravelled over one thousand miles, captured seventeen towns, destroyed allthe government property and arms in them, dispersed about fifteen hundredHome Guards, and paroled nearly twelve hundred regular troops. I lost inkilled, wounded, and missing of the number I carried into Kentucky, aboutninety."