In the predawn darkness of February 21, 1865, Confederate Lt. Jesse McNeill and his Partisan Rangers approached Cumberland from the west on this road to seize Union Gens. Benjamin F. Kelley and George Crook rather than attack the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. McNeill, who had taken command after his father John H. McNeill was mortally wounded, held a grudge against Kelley for his relentless campaign against the Rangers. At about 2:30 A.M., McNeill and his men encountered a Union picket here, answered "Friends from New Creek," and when ordered to come forward and give the countersign, McNeill charged the guard and fired a shot that missed. The picket surrendered, and two more soldiers were captured farther down the road. They were German recruits of Co. B, 3rd Ohio Cavalry, who spoke heavily accented English and refused to give the countersign until the Rangers threatened to hang one of them. When they finally uttered what sounded like "Bools Kap"—actually Bulls Gap—the Rangers used the countersign to surprise and overwhelm the other picket posts, then entered Cumberland and kidnapped Kelley and Crook from their beds in the Barnum Hotel and the Revere House. The raid stunned Federal officials, who quickly arranged a prisoner exchange for the two generals.
