2026 Annual Battle of Buffington Island Commemoration and Marietta Militia Redoubt Historical Marker Dedication
The Battle of Buffington Island, the largest Civil War battle in the State of Ohio, occurred on July 19, 1863, when Confederate brigadier general John H. Morgan and more than 1,900 cavalrymen attempted to cross the Ohio River into West Virginia at Buffington Island to evade pursuing Union forces commanded by Generals Henry M. Judah and Edward H. Hobson, and U.S. Navy gunboats under Lt. Cdr. Leroy Fitch. Morgan’s 950-mile raid across Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio caused widespread panic and endeavored to distract Union resources from invading East Tennessee in July 1863. Morgan and his men began the raid, the longest of the Civil War, on July 2, 1863, when the raiders crossed the Cumberland River from Tennessee into Kentucky. The raid ended on July 26, 1863, when Morgan and nearly 400 of his remaining men were captured at West Point, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania boarder. However, the events at Buffington Island were vital in preventing Morgan’s escape to “friendly territory” across the Ohio River and securing his subsequent capture.
The battle is significant because it demonstrated that Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio were vulnerable to attacks from Confederate forces in Tennessee. Two future U.S. Presidents, William McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes, were on the battlefield, and Union major Daniel McCook, aged 65, and patriarch of Ohio’s famous “Fighting McCooks”, that included two brothers and thirteen sons, was mortally wounded here in the early moments of the battle.
The battlefield remains fertile river bottom farmland unchanged in appearance from 1863, unprotected and threatened by natural resource mining operations. The event will celebrate the work of the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation to enhance interpretation, education, visitation, preservation and protection of the battlefield.
Please join us for this American 250 – Ohio Commission celebration! The event will include an annual memorial service, a historical marker dedication, presentations by historians on the significance of the occasion, period music performed by the 73rd OVI Regimental Band and a community picnic following the formal ceremonies. Small donations to defray a portion of the cost of the event may be made to the “Civil War Round Table of the Mid-Ohio Valley Fund” at the Marietta Community Foundation – See https://www.mcfohio.org/
To support meal planning please RSVP with number of guests to cwrtmov@gmail.com by July 11, 2026!