Re: [RC] Correction on Morgan's Raiders - David & Maggie
Morgan's Raiders came through our area of southern Ohio and left many, many
stories. We have a village named Morgantown, now. It is on Morgan's Fork road.
They flew through here like a plague. Frightening the locals and burning
barns, houses, and bridges. Amazing endurance. They were only here for a day and
rode the length of our county. Some thirty miles.
It was 2500 men and horses (not 5000 as I put in the email
yesterday) that got caught between enemy lines for 17 days. In one 36
hour period they traveled 136 miles, avoiding the Yankees. They also rode in
less that 24 hours, traveling between two towns, that were 96 miles apart but
they had to make detours to avoid bridges and towns, so the actually riding
distance is unknown. 2100 horses and men survived the 17 days of extreme
conditions of endurance. This is documented in military records, as is the
fact that the Saddlebred type horses gave the South an advantage against
the Yankee Cavalry because of their endurance. Another fact is that most of
the leaders on both sides of the civil war rode Saddlebred type horses.
Reading about the civil war is an interesting tale of including a lot of
great horsemen and horses that did incredible feats of endurance and
stamina.
Not all or most saddlebred horses are gaited , they do have the athelic
ability to be trained to gait.
