In December 1862, Confederate command sent Gen. John Hunt Morgan to shut down the L&N Railroad by cutting one of the Union’s major supply lines, and he targeted the vulnerable trestles at Muldraugh Hill, five miles northeast of Elizabethtown. On December 27, 1862, Morgan’s cavalry attacked Elizabethtown, defended by about 600 men of the 91st Illinois under Lieut. Col. H.S. Smith. Outnumbered nearly five to one, Smith chose to occupy buildings in and around the town square in hopes of holding out until other Federal forces arrived. When Smith refused to surrender, Morgan’s artillery, placed at several points around the town including atop Cemetery Hill, opened fire with solid shot and canister. Morgan then sent detachments under Col. Basil Duke and Col. William C.P. Breckinridge into town to make a street fight of it. Confederate troops forded the freezing, swollen waters of Valley Creek as shells passed overhead, and the fighting quickly became street-to-street and building-to-building. Because the Federal troops were divided among many buildings, they could not concentrate their fire or coordinate their defense and were soon overcome. Slightly wounded, Smith tried to maintain command but had no way to communicate with his scattered men. As isolated groups were surrounded, they raised flags of surrender, and nearby troops, seeing those flags, believed a general surrender had been ordered and also gave up. After several hours, Smith saw no hope of holding Elizabethtown until help arrived and surrendered to Morgan, allowing the Confederates to advance and destroy the L&N trestles the following day. The captured Union soldiers were paroled and sent marching to Louisville.