The younger brother of General John Hunt Morgan!
Captured during General Morgan's famous raid into Ohio in 1863!
Very rare Civil War Prisoner of War cover sent by Captain C.H. Morgan via a Flag of Truce to Mrs. General John Hunt Morgan!
(1839-1912) He graduated from Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1859, and soon after was appointed the United States Consul to Messina, Italy. While serving as a U.S. Government representative, he joined the fight for Italian independence, and was wounded in action. He resigned his post in 1861 to serve in London as the Secretary of the Southern Committee. When the War Between the States broke out he returned home to Kentucky and joined the Confederate Army. He was wounded and captured at the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, April 6, 1862. After his exchange, he was commissioned captain, and served in his brother General John Hunt Morgan's Kentucky command as his aide-de-camp. He was captured along with his brother John, and his brother-in-law General Basil Duke, in July 1863 during General Morgan's celebrated Ohio Raid. Initially confined at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, he was later transferred to Fort Delaware in February 1864. He was eventually released from captivity in 1865 just prior to the cessation of hostilities. After the war he spent 15 years as a steward at the East Kentucky Lunatic Asylum. He married Ellen Key Howard, the niece of Francis Scott Key the author of The Star Spangled Banner. He was the father of Thomas Hunt Morgan, whose work in chromosomal heredity earned him the Nobel Prize in 1933. Charlton Hunt Morgan died on October 10, 1912, and is buried in Lexington Cemetery, Fayette County, Kentucky.
Civil War Prisoner of War Cover Sent via Flag of Truce: 4 1/2 x 2 5/8, endorsed and addressed in ink in the hand of Captain Charlton Hunt Morgan as follows: "Via Flag of truce, From C.H. Morgan, Prisoner of War. Mrs. Genl. Jno. H. Morgan, Care Col. Thos. Fleming, Augusta, Ga." Light wear and a few small stains at the edges. Very neat and bold handwriting. Very rare and desirable!!
Please note that the illustrations of General John Hunt Morgan and his wife Mattie, and of Captain Charlton H. Morgan [taken in 1864 by John L. Gilhon while Morgan was a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware] are for display purposes only. They are not part of the lot you are buying. However, I will include Xerox copies of them with your purchase.
WBTS Trivia: The recipient of Captain C.H. Morgan's letter was Martha "Mattie" Ready Morgan, the wife of his brother General John Hunt Morgan. She was the daughter of United States Congressman Charles Ready of Tennessee. Mattie travelled with her aunt, Mrs. C.S.W. Fleming, and her husband, Colonel Thomas W. Fleming, to Augusta, Georgia, at different periods of the war.
On the night of September 3, 1864, while en-route to attack Union forces near Knoxville, General John Hunt Morgan camped near Greenville, Tennessee. 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, shot in the back while attempting to retreat and rally his men. General J.H. Morgan is also buried in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky. |