Civil War History - "What if..." DiscussionsWhat if they had attacked instead of digging in...? What if he was in charge of the army instead...? Did you ever have a "What if..." question, and you weren't sure where to post it? Here's the place to ask these speculative questions!
What if Gen. Morgan had executed US Provost Marshals during his First Kentucky Raid?
In twenty-four days, Gen. Morgan and his raiders traveled over one thousand miles, captured seventeen towns, destroyed all of the government supplies and arms in them, and paroled nearly twelve hundred Union troops.
I'm not suggesting that he should have killed all 1200 Union soldiers, but the US Provost Marshals, I think maybe he should have killed them. They were more than willing to use the rope and the firing squad to silence dissent. Most of them were brutal blood thirsty killers not above using their position and influence to further their own personal gain as well as that of their sycophants.
What if Gen. Morgan had executed US Provost Marshals during his First Kentucky Raid?
Would Gen. Bragg's Kentucky Invasion turned out differently?
Throughout the raid, all along the route, in every town and village along the way, the Green River boys were met with open arms and showered with gifts. Hot apple pie, cakes and cookies, jugs of cider, cold water, and all manner of food stuffs. Recurits turned out with weapons and ammunition and some of the best riding horses in the world. It was a cornicopia of presents.
What happened to these people? Why were things so different when Gen. Bragg moved into Kentucky to liberate the state from Yankee control?
I suggest that the yoke of Yankee oppression had been cranked down hard on them. The US Provost Marshals, all recently paroled by Gen. Morgan, seized upon the opportunity, in his absence, to not only identify and single out Southern Supporters, but to punish them, rout them and burn them out.
If Gen. Morgan had killed the US Provost Marshals on his First Kentucky Raid, things would've turned out a lot differently for Gen. Bragg and ...............
Last edited by Blue.Raider88 : 04-30-2008 at 01:50 PM.
I do not agree with your assessment that the Provost Marshals follow up Morgans raid with oppression for I did not read anything that supports it so far...
If he would a have had summary execution of Provost Marshals, he would have been label a criminal and hunted down an executed..
It may have turned the people in KY. against the southern cause if he would have had summary execution..
Bragg's invadsion KY. would have not been different..
__________________
"States Rights are about States Wrongs" - Jesse Jackson
Provost Marshalls in the border states were notorious for their repression of the citizenry thoroughout the war. Freedrom of Speach and Freedom of the Press were Silenced. Civil liberties were violated. Habius Corpus was ignored. General Halleck issued his extermination orders and just about anybody who owned slaves, voted Democratic, expressesed Southern sympathies or advocated Seccession was dealt with in the most severe terms possible.
It was a true Civil War sir, and the heel of the Provost Marshall came down hard on those men and women who welcomed Gen. Morgan and the Green River boys home.
It is no wonder you don't read about such things in the Official Record. Its un-American! But it happened, none the less.
Last edited by Blue.Raider88 : 05-02-2008 at 11:54 PM.
"Kentuckians, I am once more among you. Confiding in your patriotism and strong attachment to our Southern cause, I have, at the head of my gallant band, raised once more our Confederate flag, so long trampled upon by the Northern tyrants, but never yet discraced. Let every true patriot respond to my appeal. Rise and arm yourselves! Fight against the despoilers! Fight for your families! your homes! for those you love best! for your conscience! and for the free exercise of your political rights, never again to be placed in jeopardy by the Hessian invader. Let the stirring scences of the late Richmond fight be constantly before you. Our brave army there and everwhere is victorious. McClellan and his foreign hordes are groveling in the dust. Our independence is an achieved fact. We have bought it with privation and suffering, and sealed the contract with the seal of blood. Be not timorous, but rise, one and all for the good cause, to clear out dear Kentucky's soil of the detested invaders. Kentuckians! fellow countryment! you know you can rely upon me."
Colonel John H. Morgan cir. June, 1862
Last edited by Blue.Raider88 : 05-02-2008 at 11:51 PM.
In reading the Confederate History portion of the "Official Reports of the Rebellion," -- official records in regard to Captain Morgan; I think I see a huge difference between Morgan, a Cavalry Captain and fewer troops than General Bragg. Bragg wasn't known for his charm and perhaps he was as unkind as any Yankee invader.
In reading some of Captain Morgan's reports, although I do not agree with him using Union uniforms to go in and capture General Buell's troops and telegraph operator and staff; he does seemingly have a compassionate side to him; when he reports finding "Lincoln soldiers" who are sick as to be mortal--and leaving them in peace and unmolested to die 'peacefully.' And, for a widow--whose husband perished--detailed a few of his men to create a casket for the departed man.
Unfortunately, war has it's ugly side--and arguements for justification can be made on either side. However, not all are created for and or by 'politics' and or 'religion' --but, governed by their sense of duty to humanity.
Just some thoughts.
Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf
[Note: I have the CD-Rom with the Confederate Correspondences for the Civil War but; a lot are missing as are in the Union files, after 127 Volumes I think the transcriber was on his last quill and the type setter on his last letter type, which is set in reverse as to create book page by page-my great grandfather was a master book binder and master printer]
Well M.E., war is tricky, and violent and brutal. Civil War, brother fighting brother, neighbor fighting neighbor, is even more so.
Gen. Morgan and his contemporaries were steeped in the mistique of Southern chivilry. We would no more execute US Provost Marshalls than a man in the moon. It would not be considered honorable. I suggest, those very same men, would've lynched Gen. Morgan and his men and burned their bodies to a crisp without a second thought.
This "What If" hints at the crux of the matter folks. It hints at the real reason behind the late great unpleasantness. It hints at the reason why the South could not win.
The USMC has a saying, "Be violent enough, fast enough!" Gen. Morgan and his fellows were not.
They threatened numorous Provost Marshalls with summary execution for crimes against civilians, but they never followed through with it. I suggest that if they had .....
I guess it's really where you are standing at the time.
I also think about what if all the Confederate soldiers and local militia that threw Southern Unionists in jail without trial, burned out their homes and were arrested without benefit of habeas corpus when the Confederate govenment suspended it in regions of East TN, North GA, etc., what would have happened if they were killed by passing Union forces? Would that be fair to you?
Or even when it was not suspended, who needed it, when Confederate military officials simply declared martial law, without getting permission from the Civilian Confederate government, national or local/State, and put you in irons without charges anyway? OK to kill those folks every chance a Union force could get?
Two sides to everything and blood for blood usually means killing and more killing.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Ahhaa! Unionblue. I have missed you. Almost as much as I miss those Sierra Vista's in Arizona.
Permit me to say again, how very sorry I am for your recent loss. You have suffered a horrible tradgedy, sir. I am so very sorry for you and your family.
You must admit, this "what if" has merit. US Provost Marshalls were the instrument of oppression in Kentucky as well as throughout the border state region. They did silence dissent. They repressed free speach and freedom of the press and they suspended habius corpus. In short, they violated the Constitution of the United States and laughed at the Bill of Rights.
When Gen. Morgan and the Green River boys rode into Kentucky, they were met with open arms. They were greeted as heros by their friends and neighbors. Countless times they were told how this Provost Marshall or that Provost Marshall had done this or that to a particular civilian or Southern sympathizer. Over and over again, they reprimanded these Agents of Lincoln. Time and time again they threatened to use the axe on their heads, but in the end, they did not. They paroled them on their word of honor not to seek reprisals against the Southern civlians within their jurisdictions nor fight against the Confederacy until formally exchanged.
I suggest to you that their paroles were not worth the paper they were written upon. Their honor, non existent. As soon as they were released by Gen. Morgan, they set about paying back those that had testified against them. They set about their business with a renewed sense of vigor.
If Gen. Morgan had summarily executed these men. If Gen. Morgan had killed them in cold blood ......
It would've made a mighty impression upon the Yankee officials and Union sympathizers in Kentucky . It would've made an awesome impression upon the Southern sympathizers as well.
Gen. Morgan was reknowned as a hero throughout the southland. How much moreso if he had dealt the Yankee devils a deadly blow?
Who's to say what would've happened if Gen. Morgan had not been such a compasionate man? Who's to say how these actions would've been perceived? We shall never know. But I suggest to you, if he had executed US Provost Marshals during his First Kentucky Raid ...
We'd all be speakin' a might slower, today.
Last edited by Blue.Raider88 : 05-03-2008 at 11:19 PM.
I think that it does a disservice to history any time an entire group is painted with a uniformly black brush. I have no doubt that many of the Provost Marshals were brutal men who acted brutally. I imagine that some, however, were doing the best they could under very difficult and trying circumstances. It is my experience that the few can destroy the reputation of the many.
Further, retaliation begets retalliation. If Morgan had started executing Provost Marshals during his raid, the Union would have executed a like number of Confederate prisoners. That was how it was done. Either the executions would have quickly stopped, or the war would have grown nastier and more brutal than it was.
For all his reputation, Sherman was wasteful of Confederate property, not Confederate lives. If Morgan had started things on this road, imagine an escalation with a March to the Sea executing all Southern officials instead of simply driving them from their homes.
I shudder to think of the legacy of such a war.
__________________ "There must be more historians of the Civil War than there were generals figthing in it... Of the two groups, the historians are the more belligerent." David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1961)
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What if Gen. Morgan had executed US Provost Marshals during his First Kentucky Raid? 
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