Frustrated by multiple failed attempts to overtake Morgan in Kentucky, Major General Ambrose Burnside dispatched Brigadier General Edward Hobson and 2,500 Union soldiers on July 6 with orders to intercept the Confederate raiders. Hobson's men relentlessly pursued Morgan's men for two weeks through Kentucky, Indiana, and southern Ohio, but the Confederates slowed the pursuit by taking all fresh horses with them whether they needed them or not. As Hobson's men neared Portland on July 19, gunshots were heard from the south, and reinforcements were quickly sent toward the river. Cresting a hill overlooking Colonel Adam Johnson's Confederate forces, Union troops dismounted and fired repeated volleys into the disorganized raiders below, tightening their hold and pushing them north of the ford. The situation worsened for Morgan's men when gunboats on the river began firing on them. West Virginia had become a state on June 20, 1863, about a month before Morgan's Raid reached Ohio, and although it was formed from pro-Union counties in Virginia, Morgan still regarded it as friendly territory. He did not know that Union forces were waiting to attack from the West Virginia border if any Confederates crossed the Buffington Island ford.