Stone Gardens: Deathbed declaration, daughter's claim led to speculation about true identity of Sallisaw burial

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Confederate General John Hunt Morgan

Confederate General John Hunt Morgan was one of the Civil War's most daring cavalry leaders. Known as the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy," he led lightning raids deep into Union territory. reaching Indiana and Ohio farther north than any other Rebel force. 

Ulysses S. Grant himself called Morgan and Nathan Bedford Forrest the war's two most effective Confederate generals. Morgan was famous for disguises and a daring 1863 prison escape. So when he was killed on September 4, 1864, in Greenville, Tennessee, rumors quickly spread that he had faked his death.

One persistent tale claimed he escaped, lived in Kansas as Dr. John Hunt Cole, and confessed on his deathbed in 1899. It's a gripping story. but it's false. Here's what really happened.

Dr. John Hunt Cole

.On a hot Sunday morning, Morgan led a small raid on a Union wagon train near Greenville. Riding ahead in disguise, he was spotted by Union Captain Stephen Massey and Private Thomas Berry. They shot him through the heart at close range. His body fell dead in the dust.

Federals stripped the corpse naked and dragged it through Greenville's streets as a trophy. But several of Morgan's own officers saw it up close and identified him immediately. Captain David W. Jones kissed the forehead and swore, "It is my general." Lieutenant Thomas H. Morgan, his cousin, helped wash the body. Major William Cabell and others imcluding Captain J.J. Findlay, and Lieutenant Samuel D. Morgan examined the fatal wound.

At least seven officers confirmed the identity, not just one as the myth claims.In the 90-degree heat, the body decomposed quickly, so they dressed it in his gray uniform with brigadier stars, sealed it in an oak casket, and shipped it by train to Richmond, Virginia.

On September 23, 1864, Jefferson Davis and thousands attended his funeral with full military honors. After the war, his remains were moved to Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. The body was exhumed twice, in 1868 and later, and matched Morgan's description every time. Union reports also confirmed the kill.

Years later, a story emerged: Morgan escaped, fled to Kansas, and lived as Dr. John Hunt Cole until August 17, 1899. Cole was a real doctor in Neosho Falls and Yates Center, Kansas. He shared Morgan's exact birthdate of June 1, 1825, in Huntsville, Alabama and allegedly wrote a deathbed note saying, "I am John H. Morgan."

The tale blew up in 1915 at a Confederate reunion in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Mrs. L.F. LaRue, a veteran's widow, claimed to be Morgan's secret daughter from a Kansas wife. Newspapers ran wild with it.

Morgan's own family crushed it immediately. Richard Morgan, John's brother and fellow Raider, called LaRue "laboring under a hallucination." He named the living officers...Jones, Cabell, Thomas Morgan, and more...who had handled the body and attended the burial.

Their sworn statements are preserved in the J.H. Morgan papers at the University of Kentucky.Historian Cecil Fletcher Holland debunked it in his 1943 book Morgan and His Raiders (page 347): "Even more fanciful was a story... There was no basis for the story."

The claims don't hold up to scrutiny. Morgan couldn't have escaped alone. He was with eight officers, all captured or killed except those who confirmed his death, leaving no time for a body swap. The body wasn't hidden in secrecy; the closed casket was simply due to rapid decay.

Cole couldn't have been Morgan because census records place him living in Kansas by 1870, a full six years before Morgan's death. Cole had no limp from Morgan's famous leg wound, stood shorter, and bore no matching scars. Their photos don't even resemble each other. The "deathbed confession" was likely yellow journalism from a 1900 Kansas City Journal story; Cole's family and obituary made no such claim.

So whey so we care? Because John Hunt Cole, the man who claimed on hjis deathbed, claimed to be the Thunderbolt of the Confederacy," lies in a simple grave in the Oaklawn Cemetery in Sallisaw.

Cole's grave in Oaklawn Cemetery ia easily explained. His Kansas-born family moved there around 1900-1910 during the land rushes, disinterring and reburying him with his wife and children, a common practice at the time. LaRue lived 60 miles away, with no special plot to hide a general's identity.

The simple stone bears no Confederate symbols .

Morgan's legend made it believable. He cheated death so many times involving raids, prison breaks, abd disguises that fans wanted one more miracle. Post-war chaos bred fake-death tales, much like those spun later about Jesse James. But records, witnesses, and logic prove it wrong

.The truth is clear: John Hunt Morgan died in Greenville at age 39. His body was verified by friends and buried with honors. Dr. John Hunt Cole was a separate man. merely a coincidence of name and birthday.

The myth endures in books and online, but history has the final word: The Thunderbolt fell for good in 1864.