In July 1861, the 19th Tennessee received its first assignment to guard the pass at Cumberland Gap from any attempted incursions by the Union army from Kentucky, which remained a Union state and had declared neutrality despite the efforts of secessionists, into East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia. The gap is located at the junction of the three states and would have been a key invasion route into that region of the Confederacy, just as it was a key migration route through the rugged, mountainous terrain for settlers moving west. In his autobiography, Rev. David Sullins, the 19th's chaplain, claims to have been the first Confederate soldier to enter Cumberland Gap.