On October 21, 1861, the Battle of Camp Wildcat became the first battle between Union and Confederate armies in Kentucky. After the Civil War began at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Kentucky’s neutrality collapsed as both sides crossed its borders by September. Confederate forces destroyed a Union recruiting camp near Barbourville on September 19, while Union troops gathered at Camp Dick Robinson for an expedition into east Tennessee. The 7th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Theophilus Garrard reached Camp Dick Robinson on September 22 for training, and after only one day was sent south to Camp Wildcat to protect a ford across the Rockcastle River. Garrard’s 975 men fortified a ridge above the road from London, but sickness caused by poor clothing and blankets later reduced his force to 600. On October 16, Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer ordered more than 4,750 men to march north from Cumberland Ford toward Camp Wildcat, and by October 19 his troops were within four miles of the Union position. Before dawn on October 21, Confederate forces advanced on the camp. Around 7:00 a.m., Colonel John Coburn and 350 men of the 33rd Indiana were hurried to an undefended hill later called Hoosier Knob, where Confederate soldiers were already climbing the opposite side. Scattered firing opened the battle and the Union suffered its first casualty in the opening moments. Later that morning the fighting intensified, especially on Hoosier Knob, as Confederate forces attacked uphill and Zollicoffer placed artillery along the road below to shell Union positions. During the battle, nearly a thousand additional Union soldiers and six cannon arrived from Camp Dick Robinson after a forced march of 45 miles in 38 hours. Confederate troops fell back, attacked again in the afternoon on both sides of the road, and were again repulsed. Zollicoffer then withdrew, concluding that the position could not be carried without immense exposure, if at all. Afterward, reports exaggerated the losses, but the official count was 15 killed and 60 wounded in all: Zollicoffer reported 42 wounded and 11 killed and missing for the Confederates, while General Albin Schoepf reported 4 killed and 18 wounded for the Union. For many of the soldiers, Camp Wildcat was only the beginning of a long war in which they would fight again in later skirmishes and major battles.