Eagleport

Eagleport. Crossing the Muskingum River. On the morning of July 23, 1833, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and 600 Confederate raiders rode down Island Run Road to the Muskingum River just below Eagleport where Island Run forms a small island. Farmers and young boys in Rokeby Lock, on the other side of the river, fired hunting rifles at the Confederates. The raiders returned the fire and quickly dispersed the defenders., Morgan needed to cross the river as quickly as possible and sent half his column to Hiram Winchell's ferryboat, near the Eagleport Methodist Church (now St. Saviour by the River Anglican Church). While on the ferry, a Confederate soldier swapped his worn-out kepi (military cap) for Winchell's new hat, leaving them both with something to wear., The remainder of Morgan's cavalry crossed south of Eagleport at Island Run. The Confederates ordered a local boy, traditionally thought to have been either Lon Woodward or Johnny Fouts, to ride back and forth across the ford at Island Run to aid their passage., Morgan reportedly went into the church to pray as his troops crossed the river. The general would cross safely on the ferry. Just as the last of the raiders waded across, Union infantry, dispatched by Ohio governor David Tod, arrived from Zanesville on a sternwheeler., Picture Caption: , Morgan's Confederate raiders engaged local farmers and youth while crossing the Muskingum River near an Eagleport church.