While traveling through Kentucky in early 1865 in preparation for the state's vote on whether to join the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee stopped in Louisville. While staying at the Galt House, Lee was fired upon by a black man. The shooter was angry that Lee had captured Washington City in the recent war, subverting the Union's planned emancipation of all slaves in the South. Lee attributed his survival to the gunman's view being obstructed by the glare of the morning sun.