The first military action of the Civil War in Tennessee occurred at Travisville on September 29, 1861, when Confederate Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer was acting forcefully to establish control over the Tennessee-Kentucky border region and mounted men had taken Federal forage and military supplies. Union Col. William A. Hoskins marched the 12th Kentucky Infantry to Albany, Kentucky, where the regiment joined loyal Home Guards in several counties to protect Unionist families from these raids. After receiving reliable information that Confederate soldiers were camped thirteen miles from Albany near the Methodist church in Travisville, Hoskins detailed Capt. John A. Morrison and a company of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry to reconnoiter the camp and capture it if possible. When surprised and ordered to surrender, the 100 Southern troops first attempted a defense but then fled under heavy fire into the surrounding hills. Four Confederates were killed and four were captured, and the Federal cavalrymen took the prisoners back to Kentucky, where they were released after taking an oath of allegiance to the United States. One of the dead, James M. Saufley, is buried here in a marked grave, and according to a postwar memoir by former Kentucky congressman James S. Chrisman, a secessionist uncle had induced him to join the Confederate camp and James Ferguson, brother of Champ Ferguson, allegedly shot him. Morrison’s company was the first Union force to cross into Tennessee after the war began.