John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the eldest of ten children of Calvin and Henrietta (Hunt) Morgan.
He was an uncle of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan and a grandson of John Wesley Hunt, an early founder of
Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also the brother-in-law
of A.P. Hill and of Basil W. Duke. Morgan's father lost his Huntsville home in 1831 when he was unable to pay the
property taxes following the failure of his pharmacy. The family then moved to Lexington, where Calvin Morgan
managed one of Hunt's sprawling farms. Morgan attended Transylvania College for two years, but was suspended in
June 1844 for dueling with a fraternity brother. In 1846, Morgan joined the Freemason's, as had his father before
him. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a cavalry private in the Mexican-American War, and saw combat at the Battle of
Buena Vista. On his return to Kentucky, he became a hemp manufacturer and eventually took over his grandfather's
prosperous mercantile business. In 1848, he married Rebecca Gratz Bruce, 18-year-old sister of Morgan's business
partner. Morgan raised a militia artillery company in 1852, but it was disbanded two years later. In 1853, Morgan's
wife delivered a stillborn son. Rebecca Morgan contracted septic thrombophlebitis, an infection of a blood clot in a
vein, which eventually led to an amputation. Relations with his wife's family suffered over different views on slavery
and with her health problems. In 1857, Morgan raised an independent infantry company known as the Lexington
Rifles, and spent much of his free time drilling them. John Hunt Morgan died September 4th, 1864 he was 39.

John Hunt Morgan