PORTLAND — A project is under way to amend the existing National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Buffington Island Civil War battlefield in Portland, Meigs County.
To introduce the project, which is an ongoing effort of the Ohio Historical Preservation Office to protect important historic sites in Ohio, the first of three community meetings will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Portland Community Center.
Currently, only the four-acre Buffington Island State Memorial is listed in the National Register. However, a recent American Battlefield Protection Program study determined that the battlefield encompasses over 1,200 acres in the Portland bottom area
At the meeting, Edd Sharp, president of the Buffington Island Battlefield Association, will give a presentation on the history of the battle, and Joseph E. Brent will describe the project and discuss what a National Register listing means. Brent is with Mudpuppy & Waterdog, Inc.,
of Versailles, Ky. which will prepare the nomination papers.
The project is being funded by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program through a grant to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society. The project is scheduled to be completed this year. The second of the required three
community meetings will be held in Pomeroy on July 17 with the last to be held in Portland on Sept. 25.
The Buffington Island Battlefield is considered the most significant battle of Confederate General John H. Morgan’s July 1863 raid since it effectively destroyed Morgan’s command as a fighting force.
Brent visited the battlefield in 2005 as part of the American Battlefield Protection Program’s re-evaluation of the nation’s most significant and endangered battlefields. He has worked on numerous Civil War battlefields in a dozen states. He described the The Buffington Island
battlefield as “being in very good condition and the only one in the country where the Union navy and cavalry coordinated efforts against the Confederates.”
For more information about the March 20 meeting residents may contact jbrent1@windstream.net.
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