Battle of Buffington Island

Battle of Buffington Island
Part of the American Civil War
DateJuly 19, 1863 (1863-07-19)
Location
Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States United States (Union) Confederate States of America 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.

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