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Morgan’s Raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio during June and July of 1863 ended when Confederate General John Hunt Morgan was captured on July 26th. He escaped from the clink about four months later.
From The New-York Times November 29, 1863:
ESCAPE OF JOHN MORGAN.; The Noted Horse-Thief and Six of his Officers Break Out of Columbus Jail. …
COLUMBUS, Saturday, Nov. 28.
Maj.-Gen. JOHN MORGAN and six of his officers — Capts. BENNETT, TAYLOR, SHELDON, HAINES, HOCKERSMITH and MAGEE — escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary this morning between 2 o’clock and daylight.
JOHN MORGAN, on retiring, changed with his brother DICK from the top cell to the lower tier. The floor of the lower cell is two and a half inches thick, in which a hole was cut, under the bed, leading down into a two and a half foot sewer, running to the main wall around the Penitentiary. This wall was cut under, and the party escaped into the open country. The night was dark, with heavy rain. All efforts are being made by the authorities for his recapture.
CINCINNATI, Friday, Nov. 28.
JOHN MORGAN and six of his officers, viz.: Capts. BENNETT, TAYLOR, SHELDON, HAYNES, HACKERSMITH, and MCGEE, escaped from Columbus Penitentiary last night, by digging through the floor of their cell to a sewer leading to the river. One thousand dollars reward is offered for the arrest of MORGAN.
Wikipedia does not mention an escape through a sewer. Instead Morgan and his confederates used a hand-made rope to climb a prison wall. “Morgan and three of his officers, shortly after midnight, boarded a train from the nearby Columbus train station and arrived in Cincinnati that morning. Morgan and Hines jumped from the train before reaching the depot, and escaped into Kentucky by hiring a skiff to take them across the Ohio River. Through the assistance of sympathizers, they eventually made it to safety in the South. ”
MORGAN’S RAID-ENTRY OF MORGAN’S FREEBOOTERS INTO WASHINGTON, OHIO.
The above image was published in the August 15, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South), where you can also read more about the raid and capture. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the editors seem more upset about waging total war on defenseless civilians when the particular civilians are northerners. However, General Morgan was an equal opportunity freebooter – his men foraged from Abolitionists and Copperheads alike.
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Mutually Assured Survival?
One rendering of the Mayflower Compact:
Modern version
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620
signing up for the “civil body politic” (The Mayflower Compact, 1620 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris)
It seems that 150 years ago we were testing whether civil compacts could be abrogated.
pilgrims leave Holland, July 1620 (Library of Congress)
