Battle of Buffington Island | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United States (Union) | CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Edward H. Hobson Henry M. Judah August Kautz LeRoy Fitch | John H. Morgan Basil W. Duke Adam R. Johnson | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
3,000: [1] Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Division, XXIII Corps (Judah) 5th Indiana Cavalry 14th Illinois Cavalry 11th Kentucky Cavalry 8th Michigan Cavalry 9th Michigan Cavalry Battery "L" 1st Regiment Michigan Light Artillery Henshaw's Battery Illinois Light Artillery 14th Illinois Cavalry Battery 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 23rd Army Corps (Kautz) 2nd Ohio Cavalry 7th Ohio Cavalry US Navy USS Moose Allegheny Belle Imperial | 1,930: [1] First Brigade (Duke) 2nd Kentucky Cavalry 5th Kentucky Cavalry 6th Kentucky Cavalry 9th Kentucky Cavalry 9th Tennessee Cavalry Second Brigade (Johnson) 7th Kentucky Cavalry 8th Kentucky Cavalry 10th Kentucky Cavalry 11th Kentucky Cavalry 14th Kentucky Cavalry Kentucky Battery (four guns) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
25 killed [1] 30 wounded | 52 killed 100 wounded 750 captured |
The Battle of Buffington Island, also known as the St. Georges Creek Skirmish, was an American Civil War engagement in Meigs County, Ohio, and Jackson County, West Virginia, on July 19, 1863, during Morgan's Raid. The largest battle in Ohio during the war, Buffington Island contributed to the capture of the Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, who was fleeing U.S. Army soldiers across the Ohio River at a ford opposite Buffington Island.
Delayed overnight, Morgan was almost surrounded by U.S. cavalry the next day, and the resulting battle ended in a Confederate rout, with over half of the 1,930-man Confederate force being captured. Morgan and some 700 men escaped, but the raid finally ended on July 26 with Morgan's surrender after the Battle of Salineville. Morgan's Raid was of little military consequence, merely terrorizing the populations of southern and eastern Ohio and neighboring Indiana.
Hoping to divert the attention of the Union Army of the Ohio from Confederate forces in Tennessee, Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan and 2,460 Confederate cavalrymen, along with a battery of horse artillery, rode west from Sparta, Tennessee, on June 11, 1863. Twelve days later, when a second Union army (the Army of the Cumberland) began its Tullahoma Campaign, Morgan decided to move northward. His column marched into Kentucky, fighting a series of minor battles, before commandeering two steamships to ferry them across the Ohio River into Indiana (against orders), where, at the Battle of Corydon, Morgan routed the local militia. With his path now relatively clear, Morgan headed eastward on July 13 past Cincinnati and rode across southern Ohio, stealing horses and supplies along the way.
The U.S. response was not long in coming, as Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commanding the Department of the Ohio, ordered out all available troops, as well as sending several Union Navy gunboats steaming up the Ohio River to contest any Confederate attempt to reach Kentucky or West Virginia and safety. Brig. Gen. Edward H. Hobson led several columns of U.S. cavalry in pursuit of Morgan's raiders, which had been reduced to 1,930 men. Ohio Governor David Tod called out the local militia, and volunteers formed companies to protect towns and river crossings throughout the region.
On July 18, Morgan, having split his column earlier, led his reunited force towards Middleport, Ohio, a quiet river town near the Eight Mile Island Ford, where Morgan intended to cross into West Virginia. Running a gauntlet of small arms fire, Morgan's men were denied access to the river and to Middleport itself (which had a ferry), and he headed towards the next ford upstream at Buffington Island, some 20 miles to the southeast.
Arriving near Buffington Island and the nearby tiny hamlet of Portland, Ohio, towards evening on July 18, Morgan found that the ford was blocked by several hundred local militia ensconced behind hastily constructed earthworks. As a dense fog and darkness settled in, Morgan camped for the night to allow his tired men and horses to rest. He was concerned that even if he pushed aside the militia, he might lose additional men in the darkness as they tried to navigate the narrow ford. The delay proved to be a fatal mistake.
The US Navy's Mississippi Squadron was involved in the Battle of Buffington Island. Morgan had brought field cannons with his column. A heavy river blockade and a means were realized early in the chase while Morgan's column traveled easterly towards Cincinnati, Ohio. Lt Commander Leroy Fitch's fleet included the Brilliant , Fairplay , Moose , Reindeer , St. Clair , Silver Lake , Springfield , Victory , Naumkeag , and Queen City , which were tinclads and gunboats. A few steamers lagged to zone-up, protecting against a possible doubling back of Morgan's column. The forward vessels were each assigned a patrol zone along the Mason, Jackson, and Wood counties of West Virginia by Fitch's instruction. Naumkeag patrolled from Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Eight Mile Island zone and Springfield guarded from Pomeroy, Ohio towards Letart Islands. Victory's cannon balls have been found along Leading Creek, Ohio, its patrol from Middleport, Ohio to Eight Mile Island along the West Virginia river bank. The Magnolia, Imperial, Alleghany Belle, and Union tinclads and armed packets, which were privateers along with others documented under Parkersburg Logistics' command. The Army's "amphibious division" officer, Major General Ambrose E. Burnside at his Cincinnati headquarters, provided intelligence of Morgan's march and turned his flagship, Alleghany Belle, over to Fitch before the battle. The "amphibious division" tinclads had four to six large jonboats (sideboats) used to fire rifles from, for landing to give chase and pick up prisoners.
Fitch's flagship was the gunboat USS Moose. [2] Moose and Fitch's dispatch privateer, Imperial, were tied up within earshot of the island the night before the battle. It has been written that Fitch had the boilers fired up and shooting its large cannons at the island on first rifle fire, slightly out of range before steam could make way. Allegheny Belle was a little farther down and tied along the Ohio side. Having heard Moose's cannons, it made steam and soon brought up Burnsides' "amphibious infantry" (M. F. Jenkins 1999).
Continuing upstream after the main battle dissolved into skirmishes, Moose fired on a Confederate artillery column attempting to cross the river above the island at the next shoal crossing. Fitch dispatched Imperial to recover Confederate field artillery left behind there. All along the river, spotty gunboat and field cannon fire with clusters of rifle fire was heard shooting at Morgan's scouts, looking for another possible ford. Meanwhile, Parkersburg logistics terminal had sent a local armed packet with 9th Infantry sentries below Blennerhassett Island on word of the battle's gunfire some twenty miles below. These paralleled patrols were opposite the Belpre, Ohio Union Army encampment below the Ohio side of the terminal. This steamboat river harbor and large land debarkations camp blocked Morgan's further attempt to ford the river upstream, turning his retreat north and away from this Ohio River area. The local support vessels were busy hauling ammunition, rations and prisoners. Belpre, Ohio had a supply receiving dockage and depot.
On the foggy morning of July 19, a U.S. brigade under Henry M. Judah (1,100 men) finally caught up with Morgan and attacked his position on the broad flood plain just north of Portland, as another column under Edward Hobson (450 men) arrived on the scene. In the spirited early fighting, Maj. Daniel McCook, the 65-year-old patriarch of the famed Fighting McCooks, was mortally wounded. In addition, two Union gunboats, the U.S.S. Moose and the Allegheny Belle, steamed into the narrow channel separating Buffington Island from the flood plain and opened fire on Morgan's men, spraying them with shell fragments. Soon, they were joined by a third gunboat. Also brought onto the field were 970 soldiers under Eliakim Scammon, although this force was not actively engaged. Therefore, only 1,550 Federals were engaged with Morgan's exhausted men.
Morgan, his way to the Buffington Island ford now totally blocked, fled behind a small rear guard and tried to fight northward along the flood plain, hoping to reach yet another ford. It proved to be an exercise in futility, as the converging U.S. columns split apart Morgan's force, and 52 Confederates were killed, with well over one hundred badly wounded in the swirling fighting. Morgan and about 700 men escaped encirclement following a narrow path through the woods. However, his brother-in-law and second-in-command, Col. Basil W. Duke, was captured, as were 71 of Morgan's cavalrymen, including his younger brother John Morgan. Duke formally surrendered to Col. Isaac Garrard of the 7th Ohio Cavalry.
Morgan's beleaguered troops soon headed upstream for the unguarded ford opposite Belleville, West Virginia, where over 300 men fled across the Ohio River, most notably Stovepipe Johnson and famed telegrapher George Ellsworth. Halfway across the ford, Morgan noted with dismay that his remaining men were trapped on the Ohio side as the Union gunboats suddenly loomed into view. He wheeled his horse midchannel and rejoined what was left of his column on the Ohio riverbank. Over the next few days, they failed to find a secure place to cross the river, and Morgan's remaining force was captured on July 26 in northern Ohio following the Battle of Salineville.
Many of those captured at Buffington Island were taken via steamboat to Cincinnati as prisoners of war, including most of the wounded. Morgan and most of his officers were confined to the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. Morgan, Thomas Hines, and a few others would later escape and flee to Kentucky.
Buffington Island | |
Nearest city | Pomeroy, Ohio |
---|---|
Coordinates | 39°0′9″N81°46′30″W / 39.00250°N 81.77500°W |
Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
Built | 1863 |
NRHP reference No. | 70000508 [3] |
Added to NRHP | November 10, 1970 |
Comparatively little changed on the Buffington Island battlefield in the first century after the fighting; the only substantial difference was the placement of a stone obelisk marking the battle. In 1929, the Ohio Historical Society took ownership of the property. [4] In 1970, the National Register of Historic Places listed the battlefield. Embracing approximately 4 acres (1.6 ha) near the river, the designated portion of the battlefield was the county's first location to be recognized as this type of historic site. [3] There are threats to the site as gravel mining operations have been allowed. The current organization working to preserve the battlefield is the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation. In September 2022, the American Battlefield Trust and its partners acquired and preserved 108 acres of the battlefield. [5]
John Hunt Morgan was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. In April 1862, he raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, fought at Shiloh, and then launched a costly raid in Kentucky, which encouraged Braxton Bragg's invasion of that state. He also attacked General William Rosecrans's supply lines. In July 1863, he set out on a 1,000-mile raid into Indiana and Ohio, taking hundreds of prisoners. But after most of his men had been intercepted by U.S. Army gunboats, Morgan surrendered at Salineville, Ohio, the northernmost point ever reached by uniformed Confederates. Morgan carried out the diversionary "Morgan's Raid" against orders, which gained no tactical advantage for the Confederacy while losing the regiment. Morgan escaped prison, but his credibility was so low that he was restricted to minor operations. He was killed at Greeneville, Tennessee, in September 1864. Morgan was the brother-in-law of Confederate general A. P. Hill. Various schools and a memorial are dedicated to him.
The Battle of Arkansas Post, also known as Battle of Fort Hindman, was fought from January 9 to 11, 1863, near the mouth of the Arkansas River at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate forces had constructed a fort known as Fort Hindman near Arkansas Post in late 1862. In December of that year, a Union force under the command of Major-General William T. Sherman left for an expedition against Vicksburg, without Major-General John A. McClernand because neither Major-Generals Henry Halleck nor Ulysses S. Grant trusted McClernand. After Sherman's force was repulsed at Chickasaw Bayou, McClernand arrived and took command from Sherman in January 1863.
The Battle of Shepherdstown, also known as the Battle of Boteler's Ford, took place September 19–20, 1862, at Boteler's Ford along the Potomac River, during the Maryland campaign of the American Civil War. After the Battle of Antietam on September 17, General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia withdrew across the Potomac. Lee left a rear guard commanded by Brigadier General William N. Pendleton at Boteler's Ford. On September 19, elements of the Union V Corps dueled with Pendleton's artillery before pushing a short distance across the river at dusk. Pendleton inaccurately informed Lee that all of the artillery of the rear guard had been captured. On the morning of September 20, the Confederates counterattacked with A. P. Hill's Light Division, forcing the Union units back across the Potomac. One Union unit, the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, did not withdraw at the same time as the others and suffered heavy losses. Lee's army continued its retreat into the Shenandoah Valley after the battle.
The Battle of Cove Mountain occurred in Wythe County, Virginia, on May 10, 1864, during the American Civil War. A Union cavalry division commanded by Brigadier General William W. Averell was prevented from attacking a lead mine located near Wytheville. Confederate forces commanded by Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan, with a detachment of a brigade of cavalry from the command of Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones, stopped Averell at Cove Gap, adjacent to Crockett's Cove and Cove Mountain.
Morgan's Raid was a diversionary incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Union states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11 to July 26, 1863. It is named for the commander of the Confederate troops, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. Although it caused temporary alarm in the North, the raid failed.
The Battle of Corydon was a minor engagement that took place July 9, 1863, just south of Corydon, which had been the original capital of Indiana until 1825, and was the county seat of Harrison County. The attack occurred during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War as a force of 2,500 cavalry invaded the North in support of the Tullahoma Campaign. It was the only pitched battle of the Civil War that occurred in Indiana, and no battle has occurred within Indiana since.
The Battle of Salineville occurred July 26, 1863, near Salineville, Ohio, during the American Civil War. U.S. Brig. Gen. James M. Shackelford destroyed Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan's remaining Confederate cavalry and captured Morgan, ending Morgan's Raid. It was the northernmost military action involving an official command of the Confederate States Army.
USS Marmora was a sternwheel steamer that served in the Union Navy from 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War. Built in 1862 at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, as a civilian vessel, she was purchased for military service on September 17 and converted into a tinclad warship. Commissioned on October 21, the vessel served on the Yazoo River beginning the next month. She encountered Confederate naval mines on the Yazoo on December 11, and was present the next day when the ironclad USS Cairo was sunk by two mines. After further service on the Yazoo during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December, Marmora was assigned in January 1863 to a fleet that was preparing to operate against Confederate Fort Hindman, but was not present when the fort surrendered on January 11.
The Battle of Snyder's Bluff was fought from April 29 to May 1, 1863, during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Federal Major General Ulysses S. Grant had decided to move most of his army down the west bank of the Mississippi River and then cross south of Vicksburg, Mississippi, at Grand Gulf as part of his campaign against the city. To cover his planned crossing, Major General William T. Sherman took Francis P. Blair Jr.'s division of his XV Corps on a maneuver up the Yazoo River to feint at Confederate defenses at Snyder's Bluff and Drumgould's Bluff.
The Battle of St. Charles was fought on June 17, 1862, at St. Charles, Arkansas, during the American Civil War. Earlier in 1862, a Union Army force commanded by Major General Samuel R. Curtis moved against Little Rock, Arkansas, but became bogged down in the Batesville area due to lack of supplies. The Union leadership decided to send a naval force from Memphis, Tennessee, up the White River to resupply Curtis's men. Major General Thomas C. Hindman, the Confederate commander in Arkansas, had fortifications constructed near St. Charles to stop the Union movement. Two artillery positions were built, and three ships, including CSS Maurepas, were scuttled to obstruct the river.
During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of Southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats and openly opposed President Abraham Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years.
The Battle of Tebbs Bend was fought on July 4, 1863, near the Green River in Taylor County, Kentucky during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War. Despite being badly outnumbered, elements of the Union Army thwarted repeated attacks by Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan's dismounted cavalry.
During the American Civil War, the Ohio River port city of Cincinnati, Ohio, played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army. It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio, which was charged with the defense of the region, as well as directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee.
USS Moose was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat assigned to patrol Confederate waterways to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Victory was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Naumkeag was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat assigned to patrol Confederate waterways.
USS Springfield was a steamship purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat assigned to patrol Confederate waterways.
USS Reindeer was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
The John H. Morgan Surrender Site is the place where, during the American Civil War, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, the leader of Confederate troops responsible for Morgan's Raid, surrendered to Union troops following the Battle of Salineville. The site is located at a crossroads between the villages of Gavers and West Point in Columbiana County, Ohio, about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1973 for its military significance.
The Battle of Augusta was an engagement during the American Civil War that took place on September 27, 1862, in Augusta, Kentucky, between the Bracken County Home Guard (Union) and the Confederate Second Kentucky Cavalry Regiment under command of Colonel Basil W. Duke, a brother-in-law of John H. Morgan. The skirmish resulted in a victory for the Confederacy but the number of Confederate casualties and lack of ammunition for his artillery caused Colonel Duke to abandon plans to cross over the Ohio River into Ohio. A result of the fighting was that twenty buildings were set on fire and destroyed.