Henry C. Magruder
Confederate guerrilla
Henry Clay Magruder (1843 – October 20, 1865) was a Confederate soldier, convicted war criminal, and guerrilla during the American Civil War. Born near Lebanon, Kentucky, he took part in several major Western theater battles. Still, he is best known for his fate as a guerrilla and was possibly the inspiration of a fictional local folk hero and guerrilla fighter, Sue Munday, whose exploits closely mirrored his own.
Army career
Magruder enlisted in the Confederate States Army at age 17 and served under General Simon Bolivar Buckner at the Battle of Fort Donelson. Magruder was captured when Buckner chose to surrender the fort rather than allow his men to fight their way out, but he soon escaped. Magruder joined the personal bodyguard of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, serving under him at the Battle of Shiloh. Following General Johnston's death, Magruder transferred to General John Hunt Morgan's Kentucky Cavalry. He took part in Morgan's raid into Ohio and Indiana and once again escaped capture. He eventually crossed the Ohio River back into Kentucky.
Guerrilla fighter
Magruder, now well behind U.S. lines, located other escaped Confederates and led them in raids against U.S. military targets south of Louisville.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry C. Magruder” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.