The Civil War in the west was largely a struggle to control the Mississippi River and its tributaries which united vast reaches of the Confederacy.

As determined Federal forces wiped out Southern naval power on these inland waters, and finally won unbroken possession of the Mississippi Valley with the conquest of Vicksburg, the South selected cavalry raids and guerilla tactics as the most promising means of snatching their fruits of victory from the North.

He crossed the river at Brandenburg and raced east through southern Indiana and Ohio—burning bridges, tearing up railroads, destroying Federal public property, and terrifying the countryside.

Le Royo Fitch, the Union naval commander in the region, ordered his ships up river in pursuit of the raiders.

On the 19th, the gunboats caught up with Morgan at a ford above Buffington Island some 250 miles east of Cincinnati, Ohio, and attacked, forcing the Southerners to flee up river leaving their wounded and foot soldiers behind to be captured.