Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in Mercer County, Kentucky, United States.

Although Harrodsburg was formally established by the Virginia House of Burgesses after Boonesborough and was not incorporated by the Kentucky legislature until 1836,[5] it was honored by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the oldest permanent American settlement west of the Appalachians.

[10] Later that same year, amid Dunmore's War, Lord Dunmore sent two men to warn the surveyors of imminent Shawnee attacks, Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner, who are said to have completed the round trip of 800 miles in 61 days.

[11][12] Regardless, the pioneers remained for a few weeks until a man was killed by the natives, when the settlement was abandoned and resettled the following year by March.

It was one of three settlements in present-day Kentucky at the time the Thirteen Colonies declared independence in 1776, along with Logan's Fort and Boonesborough.

Also known as Oldtown, Harrodstown was the first seat of Virginia's Kentucky (1776), Lincoln (1780), and Mercer (1785) Counties upon their formations.

[14] A census taken between Dec. 16, 1777, and Oct. 16, 1778,[10] lists 52 residents, several of whom were well-known pioneers and frontiersmen, including Daniel Boone's younger brother, Squire Boone, Silas Harlan, the Kentucky county's namesake,[15] James Harrod, Hugh McGary, Isaac Hite and his cousins, Isaac and John Bowman,[10] and David Glenn, who later travelled further west and settled in Yellow Banks (present Daviess County).

The 19th Infantry as organized at nearby Camp Harwood for a three-year enlistment commencing January 2, 1862, under the command of Colonel William J. Landram.

The remainder of the regiment was organized in Louisville, Kentucky, and mustered in on September 26, 1862, for three years service under the command of Colonel Alexander W. Holeman.

Following the Battle of Perryville, much of the city was converted into makeshift hospitals; 1600 sick and wounded Confederate soldiers were captured during a raid by the 9th Kentucky Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel John Boyle on October 10, 1862.

[19] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.3 sq mi (13.7 km2), all land.