 The Confederates would return to the city following the Battle of Richmond.On September 2, 1862, Major General Edmund Kirby Smith led 11,000 Confederate soldiers into the city, discovering that Union forces had destroyed their (Union) government stores before retreating from the city.The residents of Lexington cheered the Confederates, prompting Smith to cable the Confederate government, saying, "They have proven to us that the heart of Kentucky is with the South in this struggle."