Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan sought a ford like Buffington Island to lead his 1,900-man raider force back onto friendly soil after crossing into Ohio. This longtime Ohio River crossing was ordinarily about three feet deep, but on July 19, 1863, heavy rainfall in Pennsylvania had raised it to a surging five feet. A 200-man Marietta militia force under Union Captain D. L. Wood was ordered to guard the Buffington Island ford and prevent Morgan from crossing. The militia built a small earthen redoubt on the hill behind the site and placed two cannons there, helping delay Morgan's crossing until morning, when Union forces were near. As Morgan's men came into the valley during the night, the militia was ordered to abandon its position; they spiked their guns, rolled them down the hill, and fled across the river without alerting the Confederates. Buffington Island ford was also the site where about 350 Confederate cavalrymen under Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins crossed the Ohio River on September 3, 1862. During that half-day raid into Portland and Racine in search of horses and arms, they took 25 animals and shot a deaf man who could not hear their order to halt. The ford was also an important crossing for fugitive slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad.