The following is an excerpt from “History of Montgomery, Ohio, 1795-1995,” published by Montgomery Historical Society in 1995.

Full genealogical line: Christopher Constable (b. 1803), son of John Constable (b. 1754), son of Benjamin Constapel (b. 1712), son of Egbert Constapel of Hurley, New York, the first to use the “Constable” surname

At the beginning of the Civil War, Montgomery men enlisted in several Union Army cavalry and infantry regiments and were mustered at Camp Dennison. Some of these men joined the 4th and 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavaliers that later fought Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s raiders.

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Morgan’s Raiders came through Montgomery because of a clever ruse by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan. In the summer of 1863 Morgan started from Tennessee with 3,000 men, but lost some by drowning while crossing the Ohio River and more in skirmishes along the way. He was down to about 2,000 men when he came into Hamilton County. The raiders captured the telegrapher in Glendale and placed their own man on the telegraph key. He sent out word that the Rebels were going to attack Cincinnati and Hamilton.

At the time that Morgan’s Raiders cut across Hamilton County, the Cincinnati area commander General Cox, on orders from General Burnside, divided the city and county into militia districts and assigned commanders to each. Militia in Symmes and Sycamore townships were to report to C. Constable in Montgomery, and officers were to assume command and establish headquarters.

While the militia concentrated on the southern portions of Hamilton County, the Raiders swept through the northeastern areas, including Montgomery and Blue Ash, virtually unopposed. They were looking for fresh horses, food and drink.

The Raiders saw a Union flag in the old stone Todd house below the village of Montgomery and ordered Mrs. Nicholas Todd to remove it or they would shoot it down. They took two horses that had been purchased a week prior in Wilmington, leaving behind two old beat-up nags too worn out to travel. Nicholas Todd had paid $500 for the beautifully matched black team and buggy, and he made every effort to keep them but to no avail. However, he was rewarded. The two nags left by the Raiders provided the start for his harness horse stable that he, his son and a grandson operated well into the 20th century.

Frank Keller, grandson of Isaac Todd, told the story that the filly left by the Raiders foaled a colt that beat Grey Henry in a race at old Chester Park. He also told that his grandfather, Thorndyke Keller, was warned of the approach of the Raiders and drove his horses deep into the woods so they would not be taken. The Raiders, however, did rob the beehives at his home.

Montgomery residents were creative in protecting their horses and property. One man put his horse in the parlor of his house and locked the door, telling the Raiders when they rode up that his children were inside the house and were suffering with the dread disease of smallpox. Residents of the Crist House on Zig Zag lowered a bag of jewels into the well by the kitchen. Another story was told that a slightly wounded soldier foraging for food and plunder was discovered by a Megie boy at his home on what is now Zig Zag Road (on the site in front of Montgomery Presbyterian Church). The soldier returned to tell his superior that Union troops were closing in.

Shelly Kennedy, granddaughter of Jonathan Crain, met one of Morgan’s men on the staircase of her home with a rifle in her hands. He left in a hurry. Mary Smethurst, as a frightened little girl, saw General John Morgan’s Confederate cavalry invade her father’s dairy farm near Montgomery and forcibly exchange spent horses for fresh ones. That farm was located on Cooper Road between Blue Ash and Montgomery.