Military fortifications were built on the hill by the
103rd Ohio Infantry during the
American Civil War to protect the city and its
pro-Union state government. In September 1862, the
Confederate States of America took control of Frankfort. Frankfort is the only Union capital to have been conquered by Confederate forces during the Civil War. Although the
Commonwealth of Kentucky did not secede from the
Union, an attempt was made to set up a
Confederate government at
Bowling Green in western Kentucky. A
Bluegrass Kentuckian,
George W. Johnson of
Scott County, was elected first Confederate
Governor of Kentucky. When the Union forces advanced on Frankfort from Louisville on Oct. 4, 1862, the Southerners retreated south. Four days later, the
Battle of Perryville was fought in
Boyle County. Unable to capitalize on their battlefield success at Perryville, the Confederates left the state via the
Cumberland Gap. Two earthen forts, Fort Boone (not to be confused with
Fort Boone) and the larger New Redoubt, were constructed by army engineers,
103rd Ohio Infantry, slave labor, and civilian labor. Written by
Lyman Beecher Hannaford, 103rd OVI, March 26, 1863, "we have now moved our encampment up on the hill in the rear of the fort. The regiment moved yesterday morn early". In 1864, local
militia in Fort Boone successfully repulsed an attack on Frankfort by raiders from the
Confederate cavalry under
John Hunt Morgan. Built after the Confederate capture of the Capitol, the New Redoubt never saw conflict and was abandoned soon after construction finished. The land was then returned to farm and pastures, where modifications and adaptations to the Forts were completed in order to increase crop yield. ==Today==