Today in History:

455 Series I Volume XVI-I Serial 22 - Morgan's First Kentucky Raid, Perryville Campaign Part I

Page 455 Chapter XXVIII. GENERAL REPORTS.

all from his wife and friends, who purported to have information as to his arrival there. From their statements to me he was confidently expected with his force about the time of the battle of Perryville. I went to Richmond, Ky., with his wife, upon what she believe to be reliable information that he would meet her there on the Saturday or Sunday after the battle. He did not meet her, and I returned to Lexington. She went South with a friend.

Question. Were your former relations with General Breckinridge and his family such as to give you peculiar facilities for obtaining information upon a subject of that kind?

They were. I had been his law partner for a number of years. His wife visited my house frequently and seemed to rely upon me to advise her as to her husband's movements, and I supposed

he would have communicated with me in relation to his family at least. Mr. Keene Richards, one of his aides, as I understood, called to see me. i did not see him but be saw Mrs. Breckinridge and communicated his information to her, as she told me.

Question. State what your information was, if you please.

In substance that she must meet him in Richmond or Danville, and that he desired her to be with him; that he expected to be there in a very short time. This was a week or two before the battle of Perryville.

Question. State, if you please, whether this information to her was to the effect that he desired her to be with him or that he desired her to go South with him, and whether the information indicated that the object of this meeting was to go South at that time.

It did not; it was that he desired her to be with him.

Question. Did this information indicate that General Breckinridge was coming alone or that he was coming with his troops?

With his troops.

Question. State what information you had as to the strength of the column he was expected to bring at that time.

He was said to be a major-general, and his troops were variously estimated at from 10,000 to 20,000.

Question. Were you satisfied yourself that general Breckinridge, with his command, was expected in Kentucky at that time, and have you any reason now to doubt that he was expected and actually on his way?

I confidently believed that he was expected in Kentucky, and am satisfied from information that he was actually on his way.

Question. Did the people of Kentucky regard the invasion of the State by the armies of Bragg and Kirby Smith and the additional force that was expected under Breckinridge as a temporary raid, or did they regard it as a formidable effort to get possession of the State and secure it to the cause of the rebellion?

I think all regarded it as a formidable effort to hold permanent possession of Kentucky if possible.

Question. State, if you please, what steps were taken to inaugurate the provisional government under Confederate authority and what other steps were taken to enforce Confederate laws within the limits of the State during that invasion.

Richard Hawes was inaugurated as provisional governor by General Bragg at Frankfort. I am unable to give the exact date, further than that it was on a Saturday, and I think the Saturday before the battle of Perryville. Several members of his council were in Lexington claiming the authorities conferred upon them by the provisional governor. I saw three or four of them just before his inauguration. In answer to the other branch of the question I will state that they required Confederate money to be taken like any other currency, and claimed the right to punish by im


Page 455 Chapter XXVIII. GENERAL REPORTS.