Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's approximately 600 raiders arrived in Rokeby Lock late in the morning of July 23, 1863, after crossing the river from Eagleport. One column, led by Morgan, used a ferryboat to land near the Unity Farm Tavern on the hill upriver from the dam and lock; after someone in the tavern fired at the Confederates and shots were returned, Morgan and some officers entered the tavern and helped themselves to the liquor, and Morgan ordered, "Don't leave good whiskey for the damn Yankees!" Another column reached Rokeby Lock after wading across the ford near the McElhiney Farm, known as "Morgan's Raid Farm." There, a group of young boys and farmers fired their rifles at the advancing Confederates, killing Private Thomas Milton McGee of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry. The Confederates tied their dead comrade to a horse, rode up McElhiney Hollow from Rokeby Lock, and buried McGee in the hollow, carving his name and the date on a rock now at the Morgan County Historical Society. Union militia then arrived from Marietta on a sternwheeler and fired a cannon at the Confederates; the shot missed them but blasted a hole in the side of the Meloy barn.