In the mid-morning of July 22, 1863, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his Confederate raiders, exhausted by relentless Union pursuit, crossed the Hocking River into Nelsonville and found the town nearly abandoned because its local militia were in nearby Athens, the raiders' rumored next destination, and residents had been lulled by newspaper reports that Morgan had very few troops left after the Battle of Buffington Island. Hoping to prevent heavy damage, the mayor immediately surrendered the town, but the Confederates took food prepared by local families, burned about a dozen canal boats and a canal bridge, and the fire spread to a nearby coal yard. A flour mill was saved only after the owner's wife personally appealed to Morgan. After taking about 36 fresh horses and as many supplies as they could carry, the Confederates departed for the northeast in the early afternoon, and Union forces under Brigadier General James Shackelford arrived about six hours later. Morgan's movement through Nelsonville came during his Ohio raid, launched after he crossed into southwestern Ohio on July 13, 1863, with more than 2,000 veteran raiders in an effort to occupy and divert as many Union troops as possible while Major General Ambrose Burnside tried to stop him.