During the Civil War, retaliation for alleged atrocities against civilians quickly escalated between Union and Confederate forces. During his 1864 Maryland invasion, Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early demanded that several towns pay ransoms or be burned in revenge for Union Gen. David Hunter's destruction of houses in the Shenandoah Valley. After Early returned to Virginia, he sent Gen. John McCausland north to demand a ransom from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and when its residents refused, McCausland burned the town on July 31, 1864. He then moved back toward the Potomac River, briefly occupied Hancock, Maryland, and withdrew when Union Gen. William W. Averell's cavalry approached. With Gen. Bradley T. Johnson's rear guard delaying Averell, McCausland rode west, rested his men and horses at Bevansville about 14 miles east, and reached this area on the afternoon of August 1. Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley, having learned of the raid and McCausland's approach to Cumberland, placed a blocking force on the surrounding hills, with a line extending from the hills to the left and along the road to present-day Williams Road. McCausland deployed on the high ground opposite, with skirmishers on the site of today's Hillcrest Cemetery, and the fight centered at Folck's Farm and Mill near where the entrance ramp from U.S. Rte. 220 joins I-68 now stands. The battle began about 3 P.M. when Federal troops opened fire, and shooting continued for the next four and a half hours. With Averell closing in behind him, McCausland broke contact and retreated south, slipping away under cover of darkness toward Oldtown while leaving his campfires burning as a decoy.