By July 25, 1863, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his Confederate raiders knew their pursuers were closing in. Major General Ambrose Burnside, directing the Union pursuit from his Cincinnati headquarters, changed his strategy, deciding to place fresh troops in front of Morgan rather than let Morgan continue to wear out the countryside with tired horses and stripped provisions left behind him. Burnside sent Major William B. Way of the 9th Michigan Cavalry and Major George Rue of the 9th Kentucky U.S. Cavalry up the Ohio River, where they disembarked at Steubenville and Bellaire with fresh horses and artillery. After leaving Harrison County, Morgan's Confederates traveled through Ramsey into Dillonvale, about six miles from the Ohio River, but there his scouts reported that a significant Union force occupied the nearest crossing point at Rayland, then called Portland. With his best crossing point blocked again, Morgan turned north up Dry Fork in search of another suitable path, as Burnside's new strategy of moving Union forces ahead by steamboat and railroad began to doom the raid.