Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
John Hunt Morgan is known as the Confederate general whose 1,000-mile raid during the waning years of the Civil War was mostly a costly mistake — but his history in Lexington should have shown leaders who he really was.
Morgan was born on June 1, 1825, in Huntsville, Alabama. The eldest of 10 children born to Calvin and Henrietta Hunt Morgan, John came to Kentucky with his family after his father’s pharmacy failed and they lost their home…