Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/132

118 opposition. Having crossed the railroad unopposed the column halted, and the horses were fed within sight of Camp Dennison. That evening the weary Southerners were at Williamsburg, twenty-eight miles east of Cincinnati, having marched more than ninty miles in thirty-five hours, the greatest march that even Morgan had ever made.

On an expedition such as the "Ohio Raid" the exchanging, or impressment, of horses is a military necessity. When Morgan crossed the Ohio River his men were riding fine Kentucky horses, many of them thoroughbred, peculiarly adapted to service on a long and exhausting raid into an enemy's country, but they had their limitations. Traveling rapidly and continuously a distance of a thousand miles was too much, even for horses that were "bred in Old Kentucky, where the meadow grass is blue." When the Kentucky cavalryman exchanged his faithful equine friend for an Indiana or Ohio farm horse, he did so reluctantly, even tearfully, and felt that he had made a bad "trade." Some of the raiders necessarily "swapped horses" three or four times within twenty-four hours. To the cavalryman who is far from his base, and dismounted, visions of prison life appear, and if a horse is anywhere within reach he will "capture" it, peacefully if he can, forcibly if he must.

Relieved of the depressing suspense incident to the march around Cincinnati, and having enjoyed a night's rest at Williamsburg, the invaders resumed their merry ways. Looking toward the bordering little hills beyond the river they began to sing, "The Old Kentucky Home." Among them were many musicians, white and colored. Somewhere, en route, they had "confiscated" two violins, a guitar and a banjo. The sentimental guitarist was softly singing "Juanita," when he was interrupted by a rollicking fiddler who played "The Hills of Tennessee." Simultaneously another gay violinist broke one of his three strings in an attempt to play "The Arkansaw Traveler," and then