Raiding With Morgan by Jim R. Woolard

the riches free for the taking.
    With two decent routes accessing Salem, General Morgan separated his two brigades—Quirk’s Scouts leading one, the Second Kentucky the other—in a race along parallel roads to their objective. A detachment of two companies was sent westward to create a diversion in that direction.
    It was Lieutenant Hardesty, ignoring the summer heat that would be insufferable by midafternoon, who answered Ty’s question about General Morgan’s tactics in splitting and weakening his division in hostile country.
    â€œHe’s mastered the art of guerrilla warfare. He’s most concerned about the Yankee cavalry chasing us. By cutting telegraph lines after Lightning Ellsworth spreads false stories as to our whereabouts, and by dividing us into sections, he confuses the local forces. The militia and home guards don’t know where to concentrate and effectively oppose us. The Yankees are equally confused. They don’t know where the general’s headed, or where his main body is located at any given point in time. Watch his strategy succeed as we move toward Ohio. The locals are too weak to slow us down, and by burning bridges and trestles and making off with every horse that can carry a man, we make it damnably difficult for our pursuers to catch us from behind.”
    They approached Salem whose church bells pealed continuously, a musical accompaniment so familiar along their line of march that many raiders swore every day was Sunday. General Morgan dispatched couriers to his separated brigades, gathered them together and advanced them at a trot. Lieutenant Hardesty positioned Ty beside the general. Ahead of them rode Lieutenant Welsh and a party of fourteen scouts, followed in turn by Major Webber and the Second Kentucky. Ty was certain his father and Shawn Shannon were with the scouts. They always seemed to be where it was the most dangerous, no small worry for Ty. Now that he had a father, he loathed the thought of losing him.
    Major Webber’s orders were to let nothing stop him, and nothing did. A detachment of enemy militia numbering 150 waited at the edge of Salem. Buglers blew “Charge” and Lieutenant Welsh and his fourteen scouts spurred their horses into a gallop and dashed down on them. The disorganized defenders’ shaky bravery evaporated and they raced pell-mell for the safety of Salem’s buildings. Their precipitous flight unnerved additional militia lined up in the town square; they took to heel, aiming for the far side of Salem, feverishly discarding muskets suddenly too hot for fingers to hold.
    As the last of the fleeing home guards exited Salem, a full company of the Washington County Legion, commanded by Captain John Davis, marched carefree as you please into the town square to pick up arms and ammunition promised them by Union brass in Indianapolis, only to discover that weapon-bearing Rebels had them in their sights. The ease of capturing the Hoosiers provoked raucous laughter, which rolled through Salem’s streets in waves. Ty saw one Southern trooper fall from the saddle, holding his stomach.
    Lieutenant Hardesty stationed Ty on the brick sidewalk of the Hiram Brightway House, General Morgan’s temporary headquarters, with instructions to observe the activity of the town square and be prepared to answer any questions that might be forthcoming from the general.
    The square filled with troopers from both raider brigades, and the outright civilian pillage, which had concerned Ty in Corydon, began in earnest. Salem was a community of abundance, and Morgan’s men were determined to treat the Northerners they hated the same as Generals Sanders and Grierson had treated Southerners during their brutal cavalry raids into their home states. To that end, the emptying of every mercantile store and business in Salem was paramount; yelling raiders descended like a swarm of locusts to pick them clean. Ransacking Rebels appropriated