 Most of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry was captured by Union forces at the Battle of Buffington Island on July 17 , 1863 . Approximately two hundred men , commanded by McCreary , mounted a charge and escaped their captors , but they were surrounded the next day and surrendered . McCreary was taken to Ninth Street Prison in Cincinnati , Ohio , but was later transferred to Fort Delaware and eventually to Morris Island , South Carolina , where he remained a prisoner through July and most of August 1863 . In late August , he was released as part of a prisoner exchange and taken to Richmond , Virginia . He was granted a thirty @-@ day furlough before being put in command of a battalion of Kentucky and South Carolina troops . He commanded this unit , primarily on scouting missions , until the end of the war . 
