"John Hunt Morgan: He represented the finest model of Southern gentility and honor that Kentucky produced. He dazzled the ladies with bright, expressive grayish blue eyes that glowed with warmth and dignity when a smile crossed a face accented by a handsome mustache and neatly-pointed goatee."

"To the North, he was a common thief or a bank robber dressed in a Confederate uniform. They called him "King of the Horse Thieves" and even composed songs about his tendency to replace his tired horses with fresh ones and to fill his men's stomach with food from whatever larder was available." 

But to the South, he was a legendary cavalier, a trusty knight who had come to rescue them from the shackles of Yankee bondage, this "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy,' whose elite cavalry struck terror in the hearts of those bent on foiling the South's dream of independence."

Marshall Myers
Texas Tech University