On September 30, 1862, 600 Union troops led by Colonel Benjamin Harrison came here and surprised an element of Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry led by Captain John Baker Dortch. After a sharp skirmish in which thirty-five Confederates were reportedly killed and wounded, Morgan’s troops retreated. Harrison was a twenty-nine-year-old Indiana attorney whose troops were victorious in the Russellville fight, his first engagement. His military career continued throughout the Civil War, including service under Gen. W. T. Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign, and in 1889 he became the 23rd president of the United States.