You are at the FrontPage

Each page listed below has up to 50 thumbnail photos to click on, so click on a page to discover and relive the event.

Page1 - Raid in Town

Page2 - Camp Scenes, Drill

Page3 - Camp Scenes, Drill, Wedding

Page4 - Cavalry Drill, Battle

Page5 - Night Fire, Barn Dance, Masquerade Ball

Panorama - Camp

Welcome to the frontpage of my Morgans Raid - Georgetown, Ky. photo gallery. Here you can view 175 photos of the event. Below is my account of the Civil War reenactment on June 18 2005 along with some history. (adapted text from the morgansraid.com, and cardomecenter.com websites)

   The morning started with a raid on the town located 2 or 3 miles from Cardome (the reenactment area). They said the turnout was smaller than past years. There were about 60 horses and maybe another 60 infantry and 7 cannon.
   Reenactors trickled in all day saturday. The event was held at a historic site called Cardome. I stayed all day photographing the downtown raid then camp life and then the battle reenactment in the afternoon. I then sat around recharging batteries till 6PM when I attended the wedding of two Union reenactors there. It was presided over by a Rebel clergy who barely made it in time. As he arrived at 6:01, I heard someone mumble "speak of the devil". As dusk fell, after the wedding, the Barn Dance started. After photographing the early dancers I went uphill to catch the night firing of two cannon. I tried some long exposure shots as opposed to only catching the burst. I like the "night feeling" of the pics I got but they are grainy. Then I hurried up to catch the pretty dresses at the Masquerade Ball. From there I, with many others went back to the Barn Dance till 11PM.
   Everyone was very friendly. The weather was perfect. The trip back was brutal. I started for home at 11:30PM after being on my feet for 15 hours. I learned that I am not as young as I once was. The 13 hour (straight-thru) drive turned into a 20 hour drive, rest, drive, rest kinda trip.
   All in all I enjoyed it and probably will attend again. (I did visit the next 2 years - see end of text for links)

   wes mayhle

-adapted from the morgansraid.com website-
   The roar of the cannon, the smell of gunpowder, the pounding of horses’ hooves. History came alive June 18 at Georgetown, Kentucky’s Cardome Centre with the reenactment of Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan’s historical raids on the Bluegrass State.
   John H. Morgan (born 1825, Huntsville, Alabama) moved to Lexington with his family at the age of four. In 1844 he enlisted in the 1st Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry and served as a First Lieutenant in the Mexican War. In 1857, the company of volunteer militia called the “Lexington Rifles” was organized with John H. Morgan as Captain.
   In 1861, as the state that he came to call home was splitting between the North and the South, John found that his wife was ill. He vowed to stay by her side and there he stayed until she passed away in July 1861. He then took the “Rifles” to join the Confederacy.
   At Bowling Green, Kentucky, Morgan was sworn into the Confederacy and made a Cavalry Captain. He fought at Shiloh with only 20 mounted soldiers. Morgan soon rose to the rank of Colonel. His raiders were a great thorn to the Union side. Colonel Morgan made his first raid into Kentucky in 1862. He ran the Union ragged and disrupted their supply and communication lines. On December 7th, 1862, Colonel Morgan defeated the Federal garrison at Hartsville, Tennessee and received the long deserved rank of General.
   In June of 1863 General Morgan led his now famous raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Despite being captured before returning to Kentucky soil, Morgan accomplished his mission, totally disrupting the Union forces and going farther north than any other Confederate commander. Upon his return to the South, General Morgan made his last raid into Kentucky, but he never achieved his former greatness. General Morgan was shot and killed in Greenville, Tennessee, as he attempted to surrender to overwhelming forces in 1864.

 www.morgansraid.com
 www.cardomecenter.com

-adapted from the cardomecenter.com website-
   The word “Cardome” comes from the Latin “Carus Domas” meaning dear home.
   The first man to set foot on this property was Colonel John Floyd in June of 1774. For his military service he was granted a total of 1000 acres by the state of Virginia, which included the Cardome property.
   By the early 1800’s the property had come into the possession of one of Kentucky’s most prominent families the Bradfords who built the first structure on the property in 1821. The property then came into possession of James F. Robinson who was the Kentucky Federal Governor during the American Civil War. He built an elegant mansion, which was located in the center of the current buildings. An interesting historical note is that the first Confederate Governor of Kentucky lived only a few miles from here, also in Georgetown. He was killed in battle at the beginning of the war. Unfortunately the mansion building burned and was torn down in 1986.
   The Robinson heirs sold the property to the Sisters of Visitation a “cloistered” order of nuns in 1896. Here they founded a girl’s academy that became one of the most prestigious schools of its type in Kentucky. Due to a variety of circumstances that led to declining enrollment, the academy closed in 1969. When the visitation community disbanded in 1987 the property was sold to Community Building Inc... The site is now owned by the city and serves as a place for many activities including weddings, company picnics and community meetings.

Links to the pages and photos from other years at this event:
2005
2006
2007
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015

The Movie listed below are posted in 4 sizes. If you find your computer waiting too long for a movie to load & play - try a smaller size.
TINY - 160x120 for dial-up
SMALL - 240x160 for cable/dsl
MED - 320x240 for cable/dsl
LARGE - 480x360 for cable/dsl

Subject: Barn Dance
Time: 1:58
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Click the links above to watch the mpg from this event.

Quicktime 7 is required - it can be easily downloaded and installed for both Mac + Windows.
Quicktime download page

My mpgs are usually 5 min or less and are shot with my older digital camera just for your enjoyment. They are usually, but not always, clips from the battle. To see all my mpgs and links to other reenactment movies go to my "mpgs" page.

Some of my mpgs use background music
from the 97th Regimental String Band.

For more reenacting information go to
Florida Reenactors Online - a website that regularly features some of my photos and articles and where you can find many links, monthly newsletters and many other resources about the American Civil War and reenacting that conflict.