The Buffington Island State Memorial, on State Route 124 in Portland features numerous information kiosks about Morgan’s Great Raid during the Civil War. (Photo Provided)

PORTLAND, Ohio — The Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation will hold a public tour of the Civil War Battlefield at Buffington Island near Portland on March 28 at 10 a.m.

The walking and car caravan tour will begin at the Buffington Island State Memorial, 56797 State Route 124 in Portland. The site is about 35 miles south of Parkersburg.

The Battle of Buffington Island was the largest Civil War battle in Ohio and was fought on July 19, 1863, during Confederate Brig. Gen. John H. Morgan’s 1863 “Great Raid” across Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

The tour will be led by David L. Mowery, an historian and the author of “Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio.”

At Buffington Island, Morgan and more than 1,900 cavalrymen attempted to cross the Ohio River into friendly territory in West Virginia to evade pursuing Union land forces commanded by Gens. Henry M. Judah and Edward H. Hobson and U.S. Navy gunboats under Lt. Cdr. Leroy Fitch. Morgan’s 1,100-mile raid, the longest of the Civil War, was intended to distract Union resources from invading East Tennessee in July 1863.

A tour of the Civil War Battlefield at Buffington Island near Portland, Ohio, will be held March 28 at the Buffington Island State Memorial, on State Route 124 in Portland. The free tour is sponsored by the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation. (Photo Provided)

The raid began on June 6, 1863, when Morgan and about 2,500 Confederate cavalry departed from McMinnville, Tenn., for Kentucky. The raiders stole personal property and destroyed bridges, public and commercial buildings, railroads, farms and homesteads along the route.

The raid ended on July 26, 1863, when Morgan and 400 of his remaining men were captured at West Point, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border. However, the events at Buffington Island were vital in securing Morgan’s eventual capture and reducing losses of lives and property.

The battle is significant because it demonstrated that Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio were vulnerable to attacks from Tennessee. Two future U.S. Presidents, William McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes, served on the battlefield, and Union Maj. Daniel McCook, who was 65, the patriarch of Ohio’s famous “Fighting McCooks” that included two brothers and 13 sons, was mortally wounded here in the early moments of the battle.

The battlefield to this day remains fertile riverbottom farmland unchanged in appearance from 1863 and unmarked and unprotected from development.

The tour is free and open to the public. Donations of $10 or more will include an annual membership in the foundation and will support the foundations’ efforts to enhance interpretation, education, visitation and preservation of Ohio’s most significant Civil War Battlefield.

David L. Mowery (Photo Provided)

Guests are urged to bring water, a picnic lunch, and to wear comfortable walking shoes.

Advance registration is requested at https://www.buffingtonislandbattlefieldfoundation.org/events.

For more information, contact the Civil War Roundtable of the Mid-Ohio Valley at cwrtmov@gmail.com or call 740-706-2575.

Morgan’s “Great Raid,” the longest in the Civil War, began on June 6, 1863, when Gen. John H. Morgan and about 2,500 Confederate cavalrymen departed from McMinnville, Tenn., for raids in Kentucky. The raid ended on July 26, 1863, when Morgan and nearly 400 of his remaining men were captured at West Point, Ohio. (Photo Provided)