John H. Morgan Tour & Symposium

Join us for a special event!  With our friends at Tebbs Bend we will be offering a guided tour of the Tebbs Bend battlefield on Friday, July 7th, and then have talks about various aspects of Morgan's command on Saturday, July 8th.  This will be a paid event to help cover location and speaker costs, and any additional funds will go to the Tebbs Bend Battlefield Association.  It is just $30.00 per person!

PAYMENT is due by June 15th!  You must pay by this date in order to attend. The payment covers your tour, speaker fees, and your lunch on Saturday.  The link takes you to the Buffington Island Battlefield Presevation Foundation website as we are using their PayPal account to accept payment.  CLICK HERE to pay!

To whet your appetite, check out Hogan’s Heroes of the Battle of Tebbs Bend by Taylor Bishop!

DETAILS

Friday Tour - Please meet at USACE Green River Lake Visitor Center by 1:15 PM.  We will tour the Atkinson-Griffin House, used as a hospital.  Then we will car caravan to tour the Tebbs Bend battlefield, one of the coolest small battlefields you might experience!

Saturday Speakers

Arrive at the Taylor County Extension Office no later than 8:15 A.M. to sign in for the symposium.  Please park in the rear of the building and enter the conference area via the door that faces the rear parking lot.  Our presentations will start 8:30 A.M.  

8:30 - Welcome and Introductions

9:00 - Darryl Smith: Morgan's First Kentucky Raid - One of the finest raids of Morgan's command, this 1,000 mile raid during July 1862 resulted in the First Battle of Cynthiana and a fear of Morgan's command not previously seen.

10:15 - James Pritchard: Morgan's Mountain Campaign - During the course of the 1862 Bragg-Smith campaign in Kentucky, Colonel Morgan, with a scratch force largely composed of new recruits, was ordered to delay the retreat of Brig. Gen. George W. Morgan's Union division through the mountains of eastern Kentucky.  Col. Morgan and his men worked feverishly to delay the column with hit and run tactics.  The speaker has uncovered a little known event that marked the end of Morgan's endeavor - a spirited clash between his men and a large body of pro-Union Home Guards in Carter County, Kentucky.

11:30 - Taylor Bishop: Morgan's Christmas Raid - This lecture will focus primarily on John H. Morgan’s Christmas Raid in 1862-1863, its importance to the Stones River Campaign, the development of Morgan’s mounted arm, and the vulnerability of Federal control in Central and South-Central Kentucky.

12:45 - Lunch - Box Lunch provided by Knobby's Deli.

1:45 - Derrick Lindow: Adam Rankin Johnson's Life Before the Indiana-Ohio Raid. Before he commanded a brigade in 1863, Johnson served as a scout and recruited his own regiment behind Union lines, the 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers. His raids and exploits gained not only national, but also international attention as he and his men siphoned off Union resources from the main areas of action.

3:00 - Panel Discussion of Morgan’s Great Raid of 1863 in Kentucky: Mike Watson-Columbia; Betty J. Gorin-Tebbs Bend and Campbellsville; Gary Osborne and Steve Tungate-Lebanon; speaker from Brandenburg. 

The Speakers:

Taylor Bishop - Taylor is a rising Junior at Morehead State University, where he hopes to gain a double major in Political Science and History.  He has been an avid student of the American Civil War since he could remember with his interest leaning towards Kentucky topics as well as the Western Theater.  He has helped give tours at Tebbs Bend and Perryville for several years, leading tours on the Brown’s Florida Brigade at Perryville, the Battle of Tebbs Bend, and several other sites in Kentucky.

Betty J. Gorin - teacher, author of “Morgan Is Coming” Confederate Raiders in the Heartland of Kentucky; co- author, Campbellsville, Taylor County: A History.

Derrick Lindow - Recived his B.A. in History from Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky in 2010. In 2015, he earned his M.A. Ed. from the University of the Cumberlands, and this spring his M.A. in History from Western Kentucky University. He is co-owner of the Western Theater in the Civil War site where he has published several blog posts. He is a contributor to the future Union Generals' Reports published by Savas Beatie. His first book, We Shall Conquer or Die: Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky is due out this summer, and is published by Savas Beatie. He lives in Owensboro, Kentucky with his wife and two sons, and teaches 8th grade U.S. History.

Gary Osborne - teacher-businessman, long time Civil War researcher and collector from Campbellsville.

James M. Prichard - Received his B. A. and M.A. in History from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Supervised the Kentucky State Archives Research Room from 1985 to 2008. Employed as Cataloger, Special Collections, The Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky from 2013 to 2022.  Delivered papers at several scholarly conferences and symposiums during my tenure with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Published several book reviews in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, the Filson Quarterly and other scholarly journals. Contributed biographical entries and historical essays to several works, including but not limited to, the Kentucky Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Louisville, Biographical Dictionary of the Union, Heidler's Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, The World Encyclopedia of Slavery, Virginia at War: 1863, Confederate Generals in the Western Theater: Volumes 2 and 4, Kentuckians in Gray and Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State. Published articles in Civil War Times, North and South and True West magazines.  Co-authored with John B. Wells III, 10th Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A (Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 1996) and author of Embattled Capital: Frankfort, Kentucky in the Civil War (Frankfort: Frankfort Heritage Press, 2014). Presently working on a book length study of guerrilla warfare in eastern Kentucky.

Darryl Smith - Vice-Chair of the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation and lifelong Civil War enthusiast.  Holds a B. A. in American History from Miami University.  Author of The War Department Tablets of Fort Donelson National Battlefield and owner of Walking With History.

Steve Tungate - business owner and collector from Lebanon. 

Mike Watson - teacher, librarian-author of History of Adair County, Kentucky.