Hines had hired a local man, Bryant Breeden, to guide them to safety, but Breeden was strongly pro-Union, and instead guided the Confederates onto the Little Blue Island, a small island in the middle of the Ohio River near Leavenworth, Indiana. On this island, a skirmish began, killing three Confederate soldiers. Hines escaped across the Ohio River with a few of his men, and the rest of the Confederate force surrendered, having successfully covered Hines' escape. The "Corydon Weekly Democrat" said of the Home Guards "Our citizens, though unused to actual war, showed the nerve of soldiers". Thomas Hines traveled throughout Kentucky by railroad until it was time to rejoin Morgan, which he did at Brandenburg, Kentucky, being put immediately in command of Morgan's artillery. Hines had to inform Morgan that they would receive no help from Hoosier Confederate sympathizers, which many believe made Morgan decide to deal more harshly with any Hoosier citizen who would later claim to be sympathetic to the Confederate cause. In Morgan's subsequent raid, on July 3, 1863 after capturing Corydon he exacted tribute from the citizens, in part because of the treatment of Hines earlier that year. Lew Wallace would say that it was his actions that discouraged any Hoosiers from helping Hines and Morgan. Hines' immediate superior and Morgan's second in command, Basil W. Duke, had not been informed of Hines' mission previously. When Hines finally saw what he saw as his prodigal son, Duke remarked how Hines was resting next to a wharfboat "apparently the most listless inoffensive youth that was ever imposed upon". Most of the area Thomas Hines traveled in this raid is within present-day Hoosier National Forest.