On Dec. 27, 1862, Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan, on his second raid into Kentucky with 3,900 men, was met at Elizabethtown by 652 Union troops under Lt. Col. H.S. Smith. The object of the raid was the destruction of the L & N R.R., a main artery for U.S.A. troop movement south. Morgan surrounded the town and placed artillery on the cemetery hill. The Elizabethtown garrison was destroyed, and the Federals surrendered.