Early on July 19, 1863, while Confederate Colonel Basil Duke tried to stop the Union advance up the Ohio River Valley from the south, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan still believed the route to the Buffington Island ford was open. Around 6 am, sporadic fire from the west signaled the arrival of Union cavalry under Brigadier General Edward Hobson, who soon pressed Colonel Adam Johnson's Confederate troops. The Confederate position worsened when gunboats on the Ohio River opened fire, and Morgan realized the crossing was impossible. He abandoned the wagons stretched along the roads for the morning crossing, and his baggage train came under heavy fire from Union gunboats and artillery to the west. As pressure from the Union land attack under Hobson and Judah combined with naval bombardment from Lieutenant Commander Fitch's tinclads, Morgan ordered a retreat to the northern end of the Portland valley. To prevent the capture of his whole division, part of Duke's and Johnson's brigades fought a delaying rear guard action nearby despite artillery fire and dwindling ammunition. In bloody fighting, Morgan's troopers were overpowered by Spencer carbines and heavy cannon fire, and overturned wagons on the Old Portland Road in Lauck's Run ravine 0.3 mile northwest blocked the Confederate escape and caused panic. Around 7:30 am, Duke and his 50-man rear guard were captured, but Morgan, Johnson, and 1,100 men escaped to the northwest.