History of the Diekmeyer Farm as It Relates to Morgan`s Great Raid

History of the Diekmeyer Farm as It Relates to Morgan’s Great Raid of 1863
Diekmeyer’s Farm -- Southeast Corner of Weber Road & Branch Hill Guinea Road, Clermont County, OH
Written by David L. Mowery, historian of the Ohio Civil War Trail Commission
During the American Civil War, from July 2 through July 26, 1863, Confederate brigadier general John Hunt Morgan led
a division of approximately 2,460 cavalrymen and a battery of four guns from Burkesville, Kentucky, to West Point,
Ohio, on a one thousand-mile raid designed to divert Union forces away from Tennessee. Known interchangeably as the
Indiana-Ohio Raid, the Ohio Raid or the Great Raid, Morgan’s incursion into Union-held western Kentucky, southern
Indiana, and southern and eastern Ohio marked the pinnacle of Morgan’s career, but it led to the destruction of one of the
South’s greatest cavalry divisions. The Union cavalry of the Provisional Division, 2,500 men led first by Brigadier
General Edward Hobson and then subsequently led by Brigadier General James Shackelford, were successful at bringing
Morgan’s raiders to bay. When General Morgan surrendered near West Point, Ohio, on July 26, he had with him 364 men
and officers from the original 2,460. No more than 500 men of the division successfully reached Confederate lines.
Nevertheless, Morgan’s Great Raid falls on the list of groundbreaking military achievements in world history, not for its
outcome, but for its execution. Even today, historians who study modern raiding techniques revere Morgan’s IndianaOhio Raid. For example, Samuel A. Southworth’s book Great Raids in History: From Drake to Desert One (Edison, NJ:
Castle Books, 2002) lists Morgan’s Ohio Raid as one of the top eighteen greatest land-based military raids in world
history since the time of Sir Francis Drake’s raid on Cadiz in 1587.
Clermont County is one of twenty-four Ohio counties that Morgan’s raiders passed through during its Great Raid.
Morgan’s division entered Clermont County around 7:30 a.m. on July 14, 1863, at the Porter’s Mill crossing near presentday Remington, Ohio. Around 10 a.m. on July 15, Morgan’s men exited the county by heading east from Williamsburg
and Bethel. Chasing them was Union General Edward Hobson’s Provisional division, which followed in Morgan’s wake.
While Morgan made his first camp at Williamsburg on the night of July 14, Hobson pitched his tents that night on the
Tudor, Harker, and Cox farms outside Newberry (also known as New Salisbury or Mulberry Post Office – see pages 12
and 15). The Tudor farm and a portion of the Harker farm are contained within the present-day Diekmeyer property.
Union General Hobson states in his official record of the Morgan Raid that his division stopped “to feed and rest” on the
night of July 14, 1863, at Newberry (see page 9). An eye witness accompanying Colonel August Kautz’s Ohio Brigade of
Hobson’s Provisional Division supports this fact in his account, referring to Camp Repose as the place at which they
stopped at 9 o’clock (see page 11). Camp Repose was the name of Mount Repose during the Civil War. Furthermore,
Department of the Ohio commander Major General Ambrose Burnside, who was Hobson’s superior, mentions in a latenight dispatch that Hobson and Morgan camped in Clermont County on the night of July 14 (see page 10).
The process of finding the location of Hobson’s camp at Newberry was done in 2004 as part of the Ohio Civil War Trail
Commission’s research on Morgan’s Great Raid (see page 3). General Morgan’s troopers passed through the Harker and
Tudor farms on July 14 as the raiders moved south along Branch Hill-Guinea Road from Wards Corner. They
requisitioned items from Cox, Harker, Tudor, and other residents living in the region, especially those whose farms
abutted Branch Hill-Guinea Road, the main avenue of travel for Morgan’s Division. About seven hours later, Hobson’s
division arrived at the Tudor, Harker, and Cox farms. Being that it was after dark (9 p.m.), Hobson called for his troopers
to make camp on these farms that offered plenty of fodder (oats, hay, corn) on which the cavalrymen’s horses could feed.
The soldiers also took the opportunity to scavenge fruit from William Tudor’s orchard and Charles Harker’s peach
orchard. About 2 a.m. on July 15, the soldiers broke camp and headed for Batavia before turning east through
Williamsburg and beyond.
William Tudor, Charles Harker, and Rebecca Cox – the owners of the farms upon which Hobson’s 2,500-man division
camped on the night of July 14, 1863 – filed damage claims with the State of Ohio in order to receive state reimbursement
for their losses (see pages 4 – 8). These government records show the extent of the damages the farmers incurred by
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hosting thousands of men for a single evening. The Docket testimony from Charles Harker (see page 4) indicates “U.S.
Forces camped on the claimant’s place and fed his grain to their horses & lied to [in] his orchard” (see pages 4 and 7).
Similarly, Rebecca Cox stated in her claim that 1.5 tons of hay were “taken from claimant’s meadow by U.S. Forces that
bivouacked there” (see pages 5 and 6). Lastly, Harker’s neighbor, William Tudor, made a claim for the heavy damages
made by the Union camp (see pages 5 and 8). Tudor claimed damages to his meadow, cornfield, and orchard, as well as a
horse foraged by the Union soldiers for use in chasing Morgan’s men. Fresh horses were in great demand by both armies,
because the animals would break down after many miles of continuous, hard riding like that experienced during Morgan’s
Great Raid.
The present-day Diekmeyer Farm encompasses most of the farm owned by William Tudor in 1863 (see page 12). The
southeastern corner of Diekmeyer’s Farm also incorporates a portion of Charles P. Harker’s farm at the time of Morgan’s
Raid. Both the Tudor and Harker houses still stand today (see page 13). The Tudor house stands on the Diekmeyer
property. The Harker house, which lays outside of the Diekmeyer property boundaries, served as Hobson’s headquarters.
The Diekmeyer Farm is the last remnant of Hobson’s camp on the night of July 14, 1863. All other parts of the Tudor,
Harker, and Cox farms have been developed over the past 50 years. Morgan’s camp in Williamsburg has been completely
developed except for a wooded section of the “Big Field” property lying north and adjacent to the John Hunt Morgan
Heritage Trail interpretive sign No. 11, located near the junction of SR 133 and SR 276 west of town.
The Diekmeyer Farm, therefore, has regional historical value related to Morgan’s Great Raid, which is Ohio’s only major
Civil War action. Branch Hill-Guinea Road and its abutting properties, including the Diekmeyer Farm property, fall
within the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail corridor, which has been nominated to the National Register of Historic
Places (under Multi-Property Listing Name “Morgan’s Raid in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio Raid, July 2-26, 1863”).
Sources:
Duke, Basil W. A History of Morgan’s Cavalry. Cincinnati, OH: Miami Printing and Publishing Co., 1867.
“Historic North America Regional Map: Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio.” Historic Map Works: Residential Genealogy.
http://www.historicmapworks.com.
Horwitz, Lester V. The Longest Raid of the Civil War: Little-Known & Untold Stories of Morgan’s Raid into Kentucky,
Indiana & Ohio. Cincinnati, OH: Farmcourt Publishing, 1999.
John, Don D., ed. The Great Indiana-Ohio Raid by Brig.-Gen. John Hunt Morgan and His Men, July 1863. Louisville,
KY: Book Nook Press, 1955.
Moore, Frank, ed. The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events. Vol. 7. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1864.
Mowery, David L. Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio. Charleston, SC: History
Press, Inc., 2013.
Nevins, Richard. Report of the Commissioners of Morgan Raid Claims to the Governor of the State of Ohio, Dec 15th,
1864. Columbus, OH: State Printer, 1865.
Ramage, James A. Rebel Raider: The Life of John Hunt Morgan. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
Southworth, Samuel A., ed. Great Raids in History: From Drake to Desert One. 1997. Reprint, Edison, NJ: Castle Books,
2002.
U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies. 128 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
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Ohio Adjutant General’s Department. Docket of Claims Presented to the Board of Commissioners of Morgan’s Raid
Claims, 1864. Columbus, Ohio, 1864. (Ohio Historical Society, State Archives Series 2040, Microfilm #GR3293)
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Ohio Adjutant General’s Department. Docket of Claims Presented to the Board of Commissioners of Morgan’s Raid
Claims, 1864. Columbus, Ohio, 1864. (Ohio Historical Society, State Archives Series 2040, Microfilm #GR3293)
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Nevins, Richard. Report of the Commissioners of Morgan Raid Claims to
the Governor of the State of Ohio, Dec 15th, 1864. Columbus, OH, 1865.
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Nevins, Richard. Report of the Commissioners of Morgan Raid Claims to
the Governor of the State of Ohio, Dec 15th, 1864. Columbus, OH, 1865.
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Nevins, Richard. Report of the Commissioners of Morgan Raid Claims to
the Governor of the State of Ohio, Dec 15th, 1864. Columbus, OH, 1865.
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United States War Department. War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies. Ser. 1, Pt. 1, Vol. 23. Washington, DC, 1880.
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United States War Department. War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies. Ser. 1, Pt. 1, Vol. 23. Washington, DC, 1880.
Moore, Frank, ed. The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events. Vol. 7. New York, 1864.
Account written by an eye witness who followed Colonel August Kautz’s Ohio Brigade on the raid.
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Above: Titus, C. O. Atlas of Clermont County, Ohio (1870). Philadelphia, 1870.
Below: Clermont County Auditor, 2014
The red lines in the
above and below maps
highlight the border of
the present-day
Diekmeyer Farm.
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Titus, C. O. Atlas of Clermont County, Ohio (1870). Philadelphia, 1870.
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