On December 27, 1862, during Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan's second raid into Kentucky, his 3,900 men confronted 652 Union troops under Lt. Col. H.S. Smith at Elizabethtown. The raid aimed to destroy the L & N R.R., a main artery for U.S.A. troop movement south. Morgan surrounded the town and placed artillery on the cemetery hill. The Elizabethtown garrison was destroyed, and the Federal forces surrendered.