Rebel Raider-Pa

I had searched through a lot of website information for Morgan's Raiders and was looking for a "beginning to end" book on this story. This book surpassed my expectations in getting the historical information along with the overall mood of the time. General Morgan was a very dashing figure and this helps to sort out the truth of many tales of the time. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who wants the whole story.

John Hunt Morgan....This name stirred up the passion of both Northerners and Southerners, and in his biography of the General, James Ramage does an excellent job in telling us why. The Morgan in Ramage's biography comes across to us the readers, as not very religious...deeply rooted in the Southern lifestyle of the times, and as a careful soldier. I found two Morgan's in the book...The Morgan who was at his most successful after the period of his first wife's death, and the Morgan who seems to lose interest in the war after his second marriage, when failure would always seem to bear its ugly head whenever the General attempted to do anything. Ramage has done a good deal of research, rooting out letters to and from the General, with special emphasis on Morgan's relationship with his second wife. This research helps us to understand the transformation of Morgan as the war went on, and helps the reader to ultimately understand this diverse per! sonality of our great internal conflict. The chapter on the death of Morgan is probably the best in the book, as Ramage tries to put down the various stories and myths that have cropped up over the years. All in all, I found Ramage's work a good read, and I recommend it to all Civil War enthusiasts.