John Hunt Morgan entered Kentucky on July 2 with about 2,500 men who swam the rain-swollen Cumberland River, many naked so they would not be encumbered with soggy clothes, and their rebel yell surprised Union scouts. Columbia lay on a Union defense line stretching from London to Bowling Green, and on July 3, 1863, about 150 men of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and portions of the 2nd and 45th Ohio Volunteer Infantry were there, but the thin Union line was no match for Morgan's cavalry. A Columbia resident later recalled seeing a Union soldier riding at full speed with Confederate pursuers firing pistols behind him, then Union soldiers cautiously appearing over the hill while Federal and Confederate soldiers could not yet see each other, until skirmish fire opened from both sides and the Federals were evidently deceived about the force they faced. The witness then heard the Confederate war cry and saw the line of soldiers dash over the brow of the hill. Confederate casualties were 2 killed and 2 wounded, and Union losses were the same. Judge Hershel Clay Baker, who as a young man witnessed Morgan's raiders entering Columbia at the beginning of the famous Great Raid, wrote of it in his memoirs for the Adair County News in 1898. General Henry M. Judah had previously ordered General Edward H. Hobson's main force out of Columbia to Marrowbone, opening a route for Morgan into Kentucky and beyond.