Those interested in local history gathered at the parking lot of Hurricane Bridge Park for the first part of a traveling lecture about the 1863 battle.

In the wee hours of the morning of March 28, 1863, Captain James Johnson, the Union commander of a fort which had been built on the heights above the small village of Hurricane Bridge, was delivered surrender terms by a group of Confederates under the command of General Albert Gallatin Jenkins. When the captain refused to surrender, the Confederates retaliated by firing down upon the fort from the nearby hills. The conflict lasted for five hours before the Confederates finally gave up and withdrew, burning several homes in the nearby village in their wake.