How Are You, John Morgan?

DESCRIPTION: "A famous rebel once was caught With saber bright i hand Upon a mule he never bought But pressed in Abra'm's land." John Hunt Morgan is put in prison, "but prison fare he did not like," so he escapes with much property to further plague the Union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by D. D. Benson, Nashville, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier derivative prison escape horse humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 224, "How Are You, John Morgan?" (1 text with reference back to the source, "Here's Your Mule")
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 89-90, "How Are You, John Morgan?" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Morgan, Where You Been?" (subject)
NOTES [563 words]: John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864) was a type of which the Confederacy had a sufficiency: The gallant cavalry raider, always impeccably dressed, with an appeal to the ladies. Some of these types, like J. E. B. Stuart, were considered successful; some, like Earl Van Dorn, were considered failures; but all three were dead by the end of 1864.
Maybe the simplest way to talk about him is to quote his capsule biographies.
Warner, pp. 220-221:
"John Hunt Morgan, whose two sisters married Generals A. P. Hill and Basil W. Duke, was born at Huntsville, Alabama, Jun 1, 1825. Educated at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky... he enlisted in the Mexican War and saw service at Buena Vista. He was mustered out in 1847, and commenced the manufacture of hemp in Lexington, and engaged in the general merchandising business left him by his grandfather Hunt. He organized the Lexington Rifles in 1857, but when the Civil War came, Morgan led his command to Bowling Green and joined the force of [Confederate] General Bucker.... He was promoted colonel of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry on April 4, 1862, and brigadier general on December 11. His series of raids into Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio earned him a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress and the undying enmity of a large segment of the frightened North. On his famous raid north of the Ohio in 1863 he was captured near New Lisbon and imprisoned in the Ohio State Penitentiary, together with a number of his officers. [He contrived] to escape and make his way south.... [This is of course the subject of this song.] He bivouacked in Greenville, Tennessee, on the night of September 3, 1864, while en route to attack near Federal forces near Knoxville. Early the next morning he was surprised by a detachment of Union cavalry and was killed in the garden of the house where he had been sleeping."
Boatner, p. 566:
"MORGAN, John Hunt.... After fighting in the Mexican War, he was a businessman in Lexington, KY, and raised in 1857 the Lexington Rifes, a militia group. He was commissioned Capt. in Sept. '61 and given a squadron of cavalry for scouting. The next year saw the start of the famous Morgan's Raids [Boatner, lists four, July 1862, October 1862, December 1862-January 1863, and the Ohio raid, July 2-26, 1863]. At Shiloh he commanded the Ky. Squadron of cavalry.... He was captured 26 July '63 near New Lisbon (Ohio) and escaped with others from the Ohio State Penitentiary (Columbus) 26 Nov. In Apr. '64 he commanded the Dept. of Southwest V[irginia] and on 4 Sept. '64 was surprised and killed by Federal troops at Greenville, Tenn. His courtship and marriage to Mattie Ready were in the romantic tradition of his military operations."
Boatner, p. 682, says that Ready was a girl of Murfreesburo, Tennessee who, after that town was occupied, defended his reputation despite never having met him. When a Federal asked her name, she replied, "It's Mattie Ready now, but by the grace of God one day I hope to call myself the wife of John Morgan." Morgan heard about it, visited her, and married her in December 1862; Confederate General Leonidas K. Polk, an Episcopal bishop, performed the marriage.
No one seems to have paid much attention to the story of the young widow after the war. And, of course, no one added any verses to this song to explain how Morgan was killed, for practical purpose, in his bed. - RBW
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