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Above: flag of the 2nd kentucky cavalry
Courtesy: Civil War Museum of the Western Theater
Bardstown, Kentucky

The Lexington Rifles – Company A, 2nd Kentucky Cavalry – is a family-oriented group of unreconstructed Confederate re-enactors who portray John Hunt Morgan's cavalry skirmishers during the War for Southern Independence, drawing its members from...

One of the objectives of this organization is to honor the memory of the brave soldiers and citizens of the Southern Confederacy, who fought against Federal tyranny for the cause of States Rights and Constitutional Liberty, by re-enacting their struggle in a manner that is authentic, professional, educational, safe, and enjoyable....

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"Sentiment moves the world; man is nothing without it. He who feels no pride
in his ancestors is unworthy to be remembered by his descendants."
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– Major David French Boyd, 9th Louisiana Infantry
First President of Louisiana State University.
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The original Lexington Rifles was organized as a militia company in 1857 by John Hunt Morgan, a dashing Lexington businessman and Kentucky patriot, who was a veteran of the war with Mexico. Morgan later became one of the most famous cavalry leaders in history, ultimately rising to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. During the War for Southern Independence, his daring exploits and fearless leadership prompted fame and fable to crown him as the . . .

.With sectional tensions rising in America in 1860, Kentucky organized her militia units into a State Guard to protect the neutrality of the Commonwealth. It was into this vanguard that the Lexington Rifles was commissioned by order of Governor Beriah Magoffin. When war raged in the country a year later, Kentucky's neutrality came to an end and the State Guard disbanded. As the respective militia units chose their separate national allegiances, John Morgan led his men out of Lexington to join the Confederate Army in serving the cause of States Rights and Constitutional Liberty....

.Two other companies joined with the Lexington Rifles to form a cavalry command known as Morgan's Squadron. Led valiantly by CAPT Morgan and his brother-in-law, 1st LT Basil Wilson Duke, the Squadron quickly gained renown under the sobriquet of "Morgan's Raiders". And, after fighting bravely at the Battle of Shiloh, Morgan's Squadron became the nucleus for organization of the famed 2nd Kentucky Cavalry when that regiment was formed at Chattanooga, Tennessee in June 1862.

Throughout the war, Morgan and his men branded their names into military history by raiding deeply into enemy controlled territory and by ranging across ten states. In July 1863, they took their fight for freedom into the states of Indiana and Ohio, thereby earning themselves the distinction of penetrating to the northern-most geographical point reached by any Confederate force during the war. Two months later, while temporarily under the command of MAJ-GEN Nathan Bedford Forrest, Morgan's men were credited with firing the first and last shots at the Battle of Chickamauga. And at the end of the war, they were among those who provided military escort for President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet through Georgia.

On May 8, 1865, the tattered remnants of Duke's Cavalry Brigade, the antecedent of the Lexington Rifles, were mustered for the last time in Woodstock, Georgia and disbanded in a last order given by the Secretary of War, MAJ-GEN John C. Breckinridge. This act brought to truth the statement previously made in South Carolina by one of Morgan’s men when he replied to a lady who protested that the men from Kentucky were appropriating her provisions. He said to her,

"M'am, you people in South Carolina may have started this war,
but we Kentuckians have contracted to close it out."

.On a blustery First Day of April 2000 in Wauconda, Illinois, the Lexington Rifles were once again mustered into Confederate service, determined to honor the proud sacrifices and brave exploits of Morgan's Men.

A special source of pride for the Lexington Rifles was the honor for some of its members to repeat the solemn oath of Confederate service on the steps of the former Green River Baptist Church in Woodsonville, Kentucky. The steps and foundation stones at the site where the original induction ceremony took place on 27 October 1861, are all that remain of the church building after it was desecrated and burned to the ground by King Abraham's hirelings in 1862.

Officiating at the enlistment ceremony was Mr. Tres Seymour, Executive Director of the Hart County Historical Society and the Battle for the Bridge Historic Preserve in Munfordville, Kentucky.