When Union Major General George Morgan was sent to secure the Cumberland Gap, Colonels William M. Churchwell and James E. Rains pleaded for reinforcements but their pleas were ignored; so they destroyed the supplies and evacuated. When the Union troops tried to secure the gap they likewise failed to receive reinforcements, so Confederate Generals Stevenson and Edmund Kirby Smith were able to retake it in September 1862 as Morgan evacuated into Kentucky. The next fall Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside was sent to take the gap and he delegated the job to an Irishman, John F. De Courcy. He got Confederate Gen. John W. Frazer drunk and believing that many Union troops were coming so in the nearly bloodless Battle of Cumberland Gap, Frazer surrendered his three regiments with 2300 men on September 9, 1863 to fewer than 500 Union soldiers. However, Col. Slemp and Maj. McDowell managed to escape with many men, and also evacuated about 400 Confederates from the Pinnacle nearby.