John Hunt Morgan and his men arrived in Mackville on Saturday evening, July 12, 1863, following raids on Lebanon and Springfield. Shortly after their arrival a skirmish ensued between Morgan’s men and the Home Guard. The Home Guard took two Confederates prisoner and severely wounded another. Morgan took two local Union men captive.
Around 1925 a local historian, Marshall Hall, recorded eyewitness accounts of Morgan’s stay in Mackville. The Confederates arrived in town wearing beautiful ladies’ hats with waving plumes and blowing streamers that were stolen from a millinery shop. Morgan and his men spent time at the Old Hotel in a barroom where Bob Reed, the bartender, served them whiskey. Not only did Morgan and his men enjoy the spirits, they knocked the heads out of whiskey barrels, poured the whiskey in large buckets and tried to make their horses drink it.
Women preparing food at the Methodist Church for an all day service the next day fled and left everything when they heard of Morgan’s arrival. Morgan and his men feasted on the bounty of abandoned food and later Morgan was overheard saying that he and his men, "had heard of ‘the land of milk and honey,’ but this was the first time they had found it."
Before Morgan left Mackville the following morning an exchange of prisoners took place between the Confederates and the Home Guard. After the exchange Morgan rode north, to Harrodsburg.
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