High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Basil Wilson Duke (May 28, 1838 – September 16, 1916) was a Confederate general officer during the American Civil War. His most noted service in the war was as second-in-command for his brother-in-law John Hunt Morgan; Duke would later write a popular account of Morgan`s most famous raid: 1863`s Morgan`s Raid. He took over Morgan`s command after Morgan was shot by Union soldiers in 1864. At the end of the war, Duke was among Confederate President Jefferson Davis`s bodyguards after his flight from Richmond, Virginia through the Carolinas.