In early October Morgan’s cavalry swept through the Trammel Community in search food and supplies. Some, such as John Howard Morgan and his mother, Isabella, who were relatives of John Hunt Morgan and were sympathetic to the southern cause, willingly parted with their goods. Others had food and supplies taken from them. When Major Younger Hyder Holland, a resident of nearby Allen Springs, heard about the raid on Trammel he began to prepare his farmstead for the Confederates arrival.
Holland left two hogs in the pig pen and drove eight others deep into the woods. He took two oxen, a mare, and three of his five milk cows to a cave. After tying the animals to rocks he disguised the entrance to the cave with rocks and brush. While Holland took care of the livestock his son, Tandy, went to warn the neighbors. His daughter, Mary Lavender, hid the family’s best clothing, blankets and quilts in the attic, covering them with cornshucks and pieces of old carpet. The whole family gathered food and staples from the cellar, smoke house and kitchen. They concealed the goods in a pit under the floorboards of the saddle and tack room that had been dug just for this purpose.
Major Younger Hyder Holland in a post-war photograph.
The Confederate raiders arrived just as the skies began to darken. They gathered what provisions they could find, which was not a great deal thanks to the family’s careful preparations. The raiders then tied a white blanket over Major Holland’s shoulders and put him on a white horse. Forcing Holland to ride in front of them as protection they began the journey south. On the road the band met the Allen County Home Guard, who fired on them. The Confederates abandoned Holland and raced for the Tennessee line, escaping capture.
DIRECTIONAL SIGNAGE:
2 - Morgan in Scottsville
On August 29, 1862 at the beginning of the Confederate Invasion of Kentucky, Colonel John Hunt Morgan rode into Scottsville, leading a brigade of 1,100 cavalrymen. Morgan and his men were on their way to Lexington, where they planned to join with General Kirby Smith’s forces.
At Morgan’s side was his brother-in-law and second in command, Basil Duke. Riding with the command were Captain John Breckinridge Castleman, a member of a prominent Lexington family, and Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell, a former British army officer and French cavalryman.
Many citizens of Scottsville turned out to see Morgan, including eight year old Sallie Porter Edmonds and her family. Over 65 years later Miss Edmonds recalled Morgan – a tall, broad shouldered, handsome man with watchful eyes with a tender, kind expression. Morgan spoke to the assembled citizens from the steps of the Scottsville Hotel on the courthouse square. The Confederates had come to liberate Kentucky, he told them, and to permanently occupy the state. His men passed out handbills urging the men of the Commonwealth to enlist for the Confederate cause.
Isaac N. Hunt One of those swayed by Morgan’s address in Scottsville was young Isaac Hunt, then not quite fifteen. Hunt enlisted as a private in Company C 3rd Kentucky Cavalry, CSA. He rode with Morgan until he was captured, along with Morgan, in Chester, Ohio in July 1863. Hunt was interred at Camp Chase near Columbus, Ohio, paroled at Camp Douglas in Springfield, Illinois, and eventually transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland for exchange March 2, 1865. After the war Hunt, then only 18, married. He and his wife, Elizabeth, returned to Hunt’s boyhood home near Gainesville in Allen County. Hunt died November 16, 1916 and is buried with his wife in the Hunt family graveyard at Gainesville.
DIRECTIONAL SIGNAGE: On southeast corner of public Square in downtown Scottsville on Historic 31E
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