[101] chest, dark hair and whiskers. A gentleman of our party, who had known him from early boyhood, remarked then: John Morgan was generally the leader in all the boyish pranks played about Lexington, while he was a boy, and the wild, reckless spirit he then showed has clung to him through early manhood. He was the proprietor of a woolen-factory in Lexington, and had a large interest in a bank. I neglected to prefix the adjective “faro ” to that bank. It is said that his avowed object in prowling about our camp, in the way he has been lately doing, is to capture some general, in order that he may exchange him for Buckner, who is a devoted friend of Morgan's family, and the latter's beau ideal of a gentleman and soldier. It may not be amiss to add here that his hopes were very nearly realized a few days since. With fifteen of his men he lay concealed in a cedar. thicket, near the road-side, within a quarter of a mile of a toll-gate, between this and Col. Kennett's camp. They were scarcely hidden before Gen. Nelson and staff came riding past, and were arrested by the earnest gesticulation of the gatekeeper, who informed them of the ambush laid for them. The General, concluding “discretion was the better part of valor,” returned to camp. The gatekeeper was found the next day, with his hands tied and a huge stone round his neck, lying in the creek. As it was very shallow, he was not drowned, but from the water he swallowed, added to the fright of having passed through such rough hands, it is thought he cannot recover.
Philadelphia Press, March 24.
