Vinton Station

Vinton Station. Avoiding Another Battle. The loss of their baggage train and artillery at Buffington Island allowed Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and cavalrymen to travel cross-country in an effort to shake their Union pursuers and avoid revealing their position. After going around Tuppers Plains in Meigs County, they headed almost due west away from the river and back into the interior of southeastern Ohio. , On July 20, 1863, Morgan rode south toward an Ohio River ford at Cheshire, but the Condor and an attack by Union cavalry under Brigadier General James Shackelford prevented the crossing. Morgan and 700 men escaped to Addison, turned inland, and encamped that night at Porter. , The following morning, Morgan surprised and captured 450 men of the 1st Scioto Militia under Lieutenant Colonel Louis Sontag near Ewington. Morgan paroled the troops but confiscated their weapons and ammunition. More than 50 exhausted raiders surrendered to Sontag before Morgan continued northwest through Iron Valley Furnace and Vinton Furnace. , When the raiders arrived at Vinton Station after 7 pm, they ordered Isaac Brown, the manager of Vinton Furnace, to guide them to McArthur. When Brown reported that Union soldiers were guarding it, Morgan directed his scouts to locate a route around McArthur in hopes avoiding another major conflict. , (sidebar) , Capture at Rankin’s Point. On the night of July 20, General Morgan permitted about 100 frustrated raiders to leave their camp at Porter to find their own escape route. The next day these men successfully reached the Ohio River at Rankin’s Point (present-day Crown City) but were all captured by Union militia before they could cross. , Text: Edd Sharp and David L Mowery, Illustration: Bev Kirk. ,