... General THOMAS J. MORGAN (1 above), son of the Honorable and Reverend Lewis Morgan, was born in Franklin, Indiana, Aug. 17, 1839. After a preparatory course of study in the common schools, he entered Franklin College, and was about completing the senior year at the outbreak of the war, in April, 1861. At the first call for troops he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Indiana Infantry, and served for ninety days in Western Virginia, participating in the battle of Carrick's Ford. At the expiration of his term of service he spent a year as a principal of the public schools in Atlanta, Ill. In August, 1862, in response to Lincoln's call for 300,000 men, he re-entered the service as first lieutenant in the 70th Indiana Infantry, Col. Benjamin Harrison. The friendship formed at that time between these two men has never been broken. He was made major, and authorized to recruit the Fourteenth REgiment of U.S. Colored Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of colonel. Subsequently Gen. Geo. H. Thomas directed him to organize and command the Forty-Second and Forty-fourth U.S.C.I., two additional regiments, of negro troops, and the First Colored Brigade of the Army of the Cumberland.
During thirty days of Sherman's Atlanta campaign, may, 1864, he served as volunteer aid on the staff of Major-General O.O. Howard, then in command of the Fourth Army Corps, and participated in numerous heavy engagements, receiving from General Howard commendation for energy and "fearlessness in battle," and the credit of having "saved the army at Resaca." Returning to his own command, he participated in the subsequent campaigns under Thomas. At Dalton, Ga., he assisted in routing Wheeler's cavalry ; at Pulaski, Tenn., he aided in checking and turning back Forrest's cavalry ; at Decatur, Ala., at the head of his troops, he charged and captured a battery from Hood's army ; and at Nashville, Tenn., December 14 and 13, 1864, at twenty-five years of age, in command of two brigades, one of white troops and one of colored troops, he opened the great battle, and for two days bore a conspicuous part in the crushing defeat that Thomas visited upon Hood's army. One horse was shot under him at Adairsville, Ga., a second at Nashville. For gallantry and meritorious services, during the war he received the distinction of brevet Brigadier-General, being one of the youngest men in the service upon whom this honor was bestowed. In August, 1865, after a service of forty months, he resigned, and entered Rochester, N.Y., Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1868. He studied at the University of Leipsic, Germany, A.B., 1861 ; A.M., 1864 ; LL. D., 1884 ; Chicago University, D.D. in 1874 ; seven years professor of Homiletics and Church History in Theological Seminary at Chicago ; was principal of the Normal School at Providence, R.I. Has published "Studies in Pedagogy," "Patriotic Citizenship" (N.Y., 1875). He was U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1891 ; Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society.
He married, Dec. 21, 1870, Caroline Starr. Issue:
1. Frederick Starr, b. 1872 ; d. 1888.
2. Mary Lucy, b. in 1876, d. in infancy. ...
