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How Cincinnati Prepared for Confederate Incursion

 

In July 1862, during the height of the Civil War, Confederate cavalry commander Colonel John Hunt Morgan pushed north toward Cincinnati. His objectives ranged from the ambitious—capturing the largest city west of the Allegheny Mountains and splitting the Union—to the disruptive, by stirring unrest among the city’s many Copperheads, Democrats, and anti‑abolitionist sympathizers.

When intelligence confirmed Morgan’s approach, the Cincinnati City Council took an extraordinary step. It authorized the arming of the Cincinnati Police Force with muskets and ordered them south as a military company under Police Chief J. W. Dudley. Their mission was to confront and, if necessary, repel the Confederate raiders before they reached the city.

 

Presented here are the commanding officers’ reports documenting the police battalion’s service during the eighteen days between July 13 and July 25, 1862.