On July 24, 1863, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan ordered his 500 remaining Confederate raiders to burn the Cambridge Road bridges west of Moorefield, delaying pursuing Union forces long enough for a four-hour stop there. Morgan rested in the Mills Hotel, while his men, refusing to forcibly enter occupied homes, slept briefly in town yards and at a nearby church. In a vacant house owned by the Reverend Thomas Crawford, some raiders found a sermon in the study and held a mock worship service as it was read aloud. A picket's shot from the west then warned of the approach of Union forces under Brigadier General James Shackelford, and Morgan ordered his troops to mount and ride east. After scouts reported a strong militia force at Cadiz, the Confederates turned toward New Athens, a Union and abolitionist stronghold whose citizens were terrified to learn Morgan was headed their way. He avoided engagement with Union or militia forces by taking a heavily wooded route north of the village, while Shackelford's troopers entered Moorefield and the raiders camped that night barely two miles northeast of them.