Confederate General John Hunt Morgan from Lexington, Kentucky led a raid into Indiana and Ohio. This action did not follow orders of his superiors. The idea of the raid was to capture supplies needed for the war effort and to draw federal attention away from other planned engagements. As time permits we can discuss more about Morgan in another blog.
This blog is about rehabilitation of the trail project that was established in the early 1990s across Indiana and Ohio. At that time, a group of volunteers got together to map out the trail and highlight known and still visible parts of the raid used by Morgan and his men. In Indiana, there is a well, a creekbed that can still be identified, the battle of Corydon site, and some graves of fallen soldiers.
There are points that could not be replacated such as the path across the Jefferson Proving Grounds. For 50 or more years, this 55,000 acre area was used to test military munitions. This site is cool to visit for WW II and other military history, but was not there when Morgan originally crossed through the area. Today, there are areas of the proving grounds that the public can go but there are many other off-limit areas due to the dangers of unexploded ordinance.
Sites along the trail are marked by these large signs. There are 27 of them in Indiana across 8 different counties. The trail continues into Ohio and covers 19 counties in that State. When developed, they were printed on “state of the art” fiberglass signs. Unfortunately, time has not been nice to these signs and many of them are difficult to read. Replacing these signs is one of the biggest parts of the project. It is estimated that this will cost between $15,000 – $20,000 to have the signs reprinted.
In May 2026, a small group of folks with a common interest in trail rehabilitation met in Versailles, Indiana. Members of historical groups, Sons of Union Veterans, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and convention and visitors bureaus all came together to discuss a partnership. The meeting was a success and some basic goals were established to continue working on bringing the project to fruition.
There are plans to form a 501 c3 non-profit organization. Once this is done, donations can be accepted from other non-profits, as well as individuals. A website will be created to track project goals and inform donors about the success of the project.
We will publish additional information as it becomes available.
