Fort Hill, a wooded height above downtown Frankfort and the Kentucky River valley, became strategically important during the Civil War because it commanded the city. After Confederates captured Frankfort in September 1862 and briefly made it the only Union state capital taken during the war, Federal forces appeared on the hill as Richard Hawes was being inaugurated Confederate governor, helping force a Confederate withdrawal. Army engineers, the 103rd Ohio Infantry, enslaved laborers, and civilians then built Fort Boone and the larger New Redoubt there. In 1864, militia at Fort Boone repelled John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry raid. Preserved today as Leslie Morris Park at Fort Hill, the site retains Civil War earthworks and sweeping views.