Vinton Station

After losing their baggage train and artillery at Buffington Island, Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his cavalrymen traveled cross-country to evade Union pursuers and conceal their position, moving around Tuppers Plains in Meigs County and then westward into the interior of southeastern Ohio. On July 20, 1863, Morgan rode south toward an Ohio River ford at Cheshire, but the Condor and an attack by Union cavalry under Brigadier General James Shackelford prevented the crossing. Morgan and 700 men escaped to Addison, turned inland, and encamped that night at Porter. The following morning, near Ewington, Morgan surprised and captured 450 men of the 1st Scioto Militia under Lieutenant Colonel Louis Sontag, then paroled them while confiscating their weapons and ammunition. More than 50 exhausted raiders surrendered to Sontag before Morgan continued northwest through Iron Valley Furnace and Vinton Furnace. After the raiders reached Vinton Station after 7 pm, they ordered Isaac Brown, manager of Vinton Furnace, to guide them to McArthur, but when Brown reported that Union soldiers were guarding it, Morgan sent scouts to find a route around McArthur to avoid another major conflict. On the night of July 20, Morgan also allowed about 100 frustrated raiders to leave camp at Porter and seek their own escape route, but although they reached the Ohio River at Rankin’s Point the next day, Union militia captured them before they could cross.

Ohio · United States