150 Years Later, Morgan's Raid Returns To Harrison

By Jake Griffin

Fully-costumed volunteers re-enacted Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's entrance into Harrison, Ohio on his Indiana-Ohio Raid which took place exactly 150 years earlier, Saturday, July 13.

Jake Griffin-Eagle 99.3

Harrison Mayor Joel McGuire speaks at the dedication of the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail of Ohio on Saturday, July 13.

Jake Griffin-Eagle 99.3

(Harrison, Oh.) - The newly established John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail of Ohio was officially dedicated in Harrison on Saturday.

The City of Harrison and the Harrison Village historical Society teamed up to provide a day-long commemoration event with lots of activities. It occurred in the exact spot where Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his 2,000 Confederate cavalrymen entered Ohio in what was the only major Civil War military action to take place on Buckeye soil.

In 1863, Morgan led nearly 2,500 rebel soldiers from Tennessee through Kentucky, then into Indiana and Ohio. They battled state militias, seizing supplies, taking horses and causing Union troops and gunboats to be diverted to stop him as he stunned the North.

During Saturday’s festivities in Harrison, a dedication and reenactment took place at the same time and date that Morgan’s Raid entered Ohio 150 years earlier: 12:30 p.m. Civil War musicians and singers performed period music and song. A ribbon-cutting took place at the start of the 561-mile long John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail, now the longest heritage trail in Ohio.