Battle of Buffington Island
Staff Report
A firing of salute was held as part of a previous memorial service to commemorate the Battle of Buffington Island.
OVP File Photo
OVP File Photo
PORTLAND, Ohio — The annual Battle of Buffington Island memorial ceremony will be held Saturday at the Buffington Island Memorial Park in Portland, Ohio.
According to the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation:
The Battle of Buffington Island on July 19, 1863, was the major engagement during General John Hunt Morgan’s Great Raid into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio and was the only significant Civil War battle to be fought in Ohio. It was a decisive 2-hour encounter involving approximately 1,800 of John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate cavalrymen and 3,000 Union artillery, cavalry, and infantry supported by navy gunboats on the Ohio River. Morgan’s troopers were poised to cross the Buffington Island ford when a convergence of Union gunboats and troops thwarted the crossing, captured nearly a third of Morgan’s command, and scattered his forces to the north.