Henry Oldham Magruder

Notes:

From the website http://southernmessenger.org/the_gray_ghost_column.htm

CONFEDERATE MARTYR
HENRY C. MAGRUDER
(1843 - 1865)

Henry C. Magruder, he was born 1843 in Lebanon
Junction, Bullitt Co., Kentucky, by Amy Magruder.

Magruder's great-grandfather was the Revolutionary War veteran
Archibald Magruder. A Brass Placque over his gravestone indicates:
Pvt, 4th Co., 29th Battalion of the State Militia of Maryland, 1778.
He is buried in a Magruder cemetery at Bernheim Forest.

Magruder's grandfather was Ezekiel Magruder (1790 - 1863).

Joining the Confederate States Army when 17 and serving in General
Simon B. Buckner's command Magruder took part in the battle of Fort
Donelson in February, 1862. Fort Donelson on Cumberland River was
targeted by the Union in an effort to cut the Confederacy in two by moving
via the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers down the Mississippi River
to the Gulf.

Magruder belonged to those 13,000 Confederates captured at Fort
Donelson by the Union forces of General Ulysses S. Grant.

Escaping from Fort Donelson he became a member of Confederate
General Albert Sidney Johnston's bodyguard. Gen. Johnston, born in
Kentucky but a Republic of Texas war veteran and Secretary of War
of the Republic, had been assigned command of the Western
Department by President Jefferson Davis. After the Confederate
defeats at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson he moved his line of defense
to the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, and later to Corinth, Mississippi.
He was killed in the Battle of Shiloh on 6 April, 1862, leading his forces.
Once more Henry C. Magruder had to seek a new Confederate
command. He joined as a soldier in General John Morgan's command.

Taking part in General Morgan's Great Ohio raid he escaped capture.
The raid began when General Morgan with 2,500 men in the beginning
of July 1863 crossed the Ohio River. The forces struck to the northeast
across Indiana into Ohio but had to surrender at Salineville, Ohio, in face
of large Union forces.

Returning to Kentucky Magruder formed a guerrilla command that was
active during 1864 in the area south of Louisville.

In February, 1865, Magruder and other Confederate guerrillas including
Jerome Clarke (Sue Mundy), a famous Kentucky irregular, were southeast
of Hawesville, Hancock County, when ambushed by Unionist Home
Guardsmen. They fired at the guerrillas with .44-caliber Ballard repeaters.
Magruder charged them on horseback but was hit in the right arm and the
bullet lodged in his lower chest or abdomen.

Retreating and riding off toward Cloverport, the guerrilla command was
ambushed a second time. Now Magruder was wounded by a bullet in
the right lung. The wounded Magruder with Clarke and Henry Metcalfe,
a Ohio County guerrilla, managed to avoid Union troops for two weeks.
Magruder was treated by a doctor in Breckinridge County. Acting on a
tip of an informer Union soldiers found the guerrillas in a barn near the
doctor's residence. Surrounded they were captured on March 12, 1865.

Clarke was tried, sentenced to death and hanged on March 15, while
Magruder was kept alive by the Federals in a Louisville prison to be
tried, sentenced to death and executed by hanging on the 20th of October,
1865, over six months after the surrender at Appomattox. He reached the
age of 22 years.

By coincidence Missouri Confederate guerrilla Colonel William C.
Quantrill for a few weeks came to languish in the same Federal prison
in Louisville as Magruder. Quantrill, on his final Kentucky raid, was
captured and mortally wounded on 10th May, 1865, at Wakefield,
Kentucky, and brought to the military prison hospital at Tenth Street
and Broadway in Louisville. There Quantrill lay dying until just before
he expired he was transported to a Catholic Hospital. He passed
away on June 6th and his last words has been said to be: "Boys, get
ready, steady". Quantrill was 27 years old.

The reason the Missourian Quantrill and Marcellus Jerome Clarke
(alias Sue Mundy) are so well known is that they both had
newspapermen, who wrote about them, but Magruder had no sponsor
in the media. As you all know Quantrill was made famous by John
Edwards, who fought in Jo Shelby's Iron Brigade and then followed
Shelby to Mexico after the war. Edwards was the historian of this
unique expedition and chronicler of the activities of Shelby's Iron
Brigade. In the last twenty years of Edward's life he wrote about
Quantrill and his men in daily newspapers in Missouri and in 1877
the book Noted Guerrillas was published.

In the case of Clarke it was, as you all know, George Prentice,
editor of the Louisville Daily Journal, that made the Kentucky
guerrilla captain famous, but for the wrong reasons. He claimed
Clarke was a female guerrilla named Sue Mundy, and the readers
were fascinated.

February 2000 Bertil Haggman©

Notes:

The inscription on Archibald's tobstone reads, in part, ""He was a dutiful child, an affectionate brother, a tender
father, an obliging neighbour, a good master, a loving companion".

Archibald married Verlinda C. Swearingen on 13 May 1824 in Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, Kentucky, USA. Verlinda (daughter of Elemlech Swearingen and Susannah Higgins) was born on 9 Jun 1806 in Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, Kentucky, USA; died on 9 Jan 1884 in Bullitt County, Kentucky, USA; was buried in Magruder Cemetery, Bernheim Forest, Bullitt County, Kentucky, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Archibald married Casandra Offutt in cir 1780. Casandra (daughter of Samuel Offutt and Elizabeth Burgess) was born on 25 Nov 1760 in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA; died on 23 Apr 1835 in Bullitt County, Kentucky, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elemlech + Susannah Higgins. Susannah was born in cir 1780. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Jane Offutt in cir 1731 in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. Jane (daughter of Edward Offutt and Eleanor Edmonston) was born after 1710 in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA; died before 4 Jul 1787 in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Samuel + Elizabeth Burgess. Elizabeth was born in cir 1730. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ninian + Elizabeth Brewer. Elizabeth (daughter of John Brewer and Sarah Ridgeley) was born on 26 Oct 1690. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Edward + Eleanor Edmonston. Eleanor was born in cir 1690. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Samuel Magruder was a vestryman at St. Paul's Church, a civil and military officer (Colonel) between 1676-1705, and a member of the Assembly from 1704 until 1707. His will was drawn on 23 November 1710, and was probated on 16 April 1711.

Samuel married Sarah Beall before 1686. Sarah (daughter of Ninian Beall and Ruth Moore) died in 1734. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Sarah Ridgeley in 1685. Sarah (daughter of Henry Ridgeley and Sarah Warner) was born in cir 1667. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]