After Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861, many East Tennesseans opposed the Confederacy, burning bridges and harassing Confederate sympathizers as General Felix K. Zollicoffer arrived in Knoxville with 4,000 soldiers to preserve peace, protect the railroads, and repel invasion. In Kentucky, despite the state's declared neutrality, William "Bull" Nelson established Camp Dick Robinson in Garrard County during the summer of 1861 and brought 5,000 "Lincoln guns" for Union recruits, while Abraham Lincoln refused Governor Beriah Magoffin's demand to remove the camp. As part of a plan to free Unionists in East Tennessee, Nelson and Samuel P. Carter organized loyal men from Kentucky and East Tennessee, but arrests of Union sympathizers in Tennessee forced the Carter brothers to place Camp Andy Johnson in Barbourville instead. In Knox County, where the Enrolled Militia included about 1,100 men, Unionists formed a Home Guard of 300 under John G. Eve, A.D. Catron, and Isaac J. Black to counter the pro-Southern State Guard organized under Simon B. Buckner. During a July 4 celebration in Barbourville, the Home Guard marched from the court square to a site near what is now Knox Central Middle School, where one thousand loyal citizens watched speeches and the presentation of a flag made by the women of Barbourville. On September 19, 1861, a handful of Home Guard defended Barbourville against a well-armed Confederate infantry detachment determined to invade the city. Barbourville also stood near Cumberland Gap, the historic gateway through which many entered Kentucky in the 18th century along routes tied to the Warrior's Path, and during the Civil War the Gap became a strategic objective as the shortest route into the Confederacy; Zollicoffer secured it for the Confederates in late summer 1861, it changed hands several times before Union forces firmly took it in September 1863, and in the winter of 1864 Ulysses S. Grant inspected the State Road by way of Barbourville before rejecting it as too poor for invasion and supply.