John Morton's Confederate battery monument.
Originally organized on July 1, 1861, as CS Captain Thomas K. Porter’s Light artillery company, this battery would be attached to CS Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner’s Division at Fort Donelson. The battery would be surrendered on February 16, after Porter was injured, severely enough, to have his leg amputated.
The battery, being exchanged, at Vicksburg, in September, 1862, then lieutenant John W. Morton would take command. Ordered east, to Murfreesboro, it was attached to CS Brigadier General General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry. Telling CS General Braxton Bragg, that he had Freeman’s battery, and needed no additional artillery support, Forrest would end up referring him to CS Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler. Wheeler would send Morton back to Forrest’s command, on December 5.
Forrest was raiding northwest Tennessee at this time. Disillusioned by Morton’s youth, Forrest did not have a lot of confidence in the young lieutenant. This would change on December 31, 1862, at the battle of Parker’s Crossroads.
Retiring back through west Tennessee, Forrest expected to make a crossing of the Tennessee River, and enter northern Mississippi, to refit. Running into part of US Brigadier General Jeremiah Sullivan’s command, near Parker’s Crossroads, Forrest would deploy Freeman’s Battery, and young Morton’s battery, in an advance position. The exceptional command of both batteries, would push US Colonel Cyrus Dunham’s brigade south of the crossroads. John Morton would be instrumental in their early success, against the Federal army. Unfortunately, with the arrival of US Colonel John Fuller’s brigade, Forrest would become surrounded. He would make a fantastic escape, to the Tennessee River, keeping the majority of his command together.
Morton earned Bedford Forrest’s praise, and would become the youngest artillery captain in the Confederate army.
