On the night of August 29, General Patrick Cleburne's two brigades encamped at Bobtown. At approximately 4:30 on the morning of August 30, a Confederate cavalry screen led by Captain William L. Garriott, sometimes called Garnett, of the Kentucky Buckner Guards rode north along the Old State Road, followed by Colonel Benjamin Hill's infantry, which had been in line of battle all night. Hill's brigade pushed toward Kingston, about two miles north, with Preston Smith's brigade following 500 yards behind. Just north of Kingston, at the intersection of the Irvine-Lancaster Pike, present-day US 421 and Crooksville Road, the Confederate cavalry encountered Union pickets. Garriott's men exchanged fire with the pickets, who quickly retreated toward Mt. Zion Church. When Garriott reached the intersection, he saw Union infantry deploying near the small redbrick church and quickly sent word back to Cleburne, who hurried his two brigades forward. Cleburne deployed his artillery and began firing on the Union line near Mt. Zion Church, beginning the Battle of Richmond.