Cynthiana was a Civil War engagement fought in Kentucky, 1864. It was a Union victory.
Brig. Gen. Morgan approached Cynthiana with 1,200 men, on June 11, 1864, at dawn. Col. Conrad Garis, with the 168th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry and some home guard troops, about 300 men altogether, constituted the Union forces at Cynthiana. Morgan divided his men into three columns, surrounded the town and launched an attack at the covered bridge, driving the Union forces back towards the depot and north along the railroad. The Rebels set fire to the town, destroying many buildings and some of the Union troops. As the fighting flared in Cynthiana, another Union force, about 750 men of the 171st Ohio National Guard under the command of Brig. Gen. Edward Hobson, arrived by train about a mile north of the Cynthiana at Kellar's Bridge. Morgan trapped this new Union force in a meander of the Licking River. After some fighting, Morgan forced Hobson to surrender. Altogether, Morgan had about 1,300 Union prisoners of war camping with him overnight in line of battle. Brig. Gen. Stephen Gano Burbridge with 2,400 men, a combined force of Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan mounted infantry and cavalry, attacked Morgan at dawn on June 12. The Union forces drove the Rebels back, causing them to flee into town where many were captured or killed. Morgan escaped. Cynthiana demonstrated that Union numbers and mobility were starting to take their toll; Confederate cavalry and partisans could no longer raid with impunity.
Fought across June 11 and 12, 1864, near the town of Cynthiana in Harrison County, Kentucky, this clash actually comprised three distinct engagements and is known alternately as the Second Battle of Cynthiana or the Battle of Kellar's Bridge. It formed one chapter of Confederate Brigadier General John H. Morgan's 1864 raid through Kentucky. When the fighting concluded, Union forces had triumphed over the raiders, bringing Morgan's final Kentucky raid to a defeated close. Notably, Morgan's men had already seized this same town once before, during the First Battle of Cynthiana on July 17, 1862.
Morgan arrived at the outskirts of Cynthiana at daybreak on June 11, 1864, leading roughly 1,200 horsemen. Guarding the town was a modest Union garrison under Colonel Conrad Garis, consisting of five companies from the 168th Ohio Infantry plus some home guard members, totaling about 300 defenders. Splitting his force into two columns advancing from the south and east, Morgan struck first at the covered bridge, pushing Garis's men back toward the depot of the Kentucky Central Railroad and then northward along the tracks to the Rankin House, which the Federals converted into a defensive stronghold. Lacking artillery to force the Union troops from this position, the Confederates instead torched the town, obliterating thirty-seven structures and killing several Federal soldiers in the process.
While this battle raged within Cynthiana, a separate Union column was converging on the area: roughly 500
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