Hurriedly vacating Dupont early Sunday morning, July 12, 1863, General Morgan's 2,000 cavalrymen headed east. A Dupont resident, Thomas Stout, was commandeered as a guide. The raiders passed numerous farms destroying crops and gathering fresh horses. Along a road which exists today in the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge, formerly the Jefferson Proving Ground, three stragglers who had stopped for water were captured by two Union officers home on leave. They were taken to Madison where an angry Hoosier mob threatened to lynch the three prisoners. The main Confederate column reached Bryantsburg from the west and turned north. The unfortunate Mr. Stout, his horse taken by raiders, was released and walked the 12 miles back to his home. At this location, Morgan divided his command, sending a section up the old Michigan Road, while the main column continued on the planked Madison Road to Versailles.