Forrest's Expedition into West Tennessee was a raid conducted by Confederate Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee from December 1862 to January 1863, during the American Civil War. Forrest led an expedition of 1,800 to 2,500 men into Union-held West Tennessee to disrupt the supply lines of Major General Ulysses S. Grant, who was campaigning south along the Mississippi River toward Vicksburg.
The Confederate objective was to dismantle segments of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad between Columbus, Kentucky and Jackson, Tennessee in an attempt to slow Grant's advance. In meeting this objective the raid was largely successful, and Forrest returned with more men and supplies than he had started with. Ultimately, however, Grant's army was only marginally delayed, and Vicksburg fell to Union forces six months later. The West Tennessee raid consisted of three main actions at Lexington, Jackson and Parker's Cross Roads.
Expedition begins.
Forrest and his command, 1,800 men and four cannon, left Columbia, Tennessee on December 10 or 11, 1862, under orders from General Braxton Bragg. They were headed into West Tennessee, facing an area of well-entrenched enemies with ten times their strength in armaments. In writing to his superiors, Forrest made clear the ineffective condition of his arms as well as the fact that his men were supplied with only 10 rounds of caps for their shotguns while many of their flintlock muskets lacked flints. The reply was a curtly couched order to march without delay. Forrest was irritated at being ordered to go into the area without "ferriage."
The expedition reached the Tennessee River at Clifton below Double Island on December 13. The precise route Forrest took is not known, but there was a Columbia–Clifton Thoroughfare in existence during the era with a length of approximately . Forrest's men spent hours looking to cross the rain-swollen Tennessee River. On December 14, Forrest found a leaky flatboat hidden in the brush. He made this into a pontoon to begin an effective passage across the river; by December 15, his command had successfully forded the river. The artillery and wagon trains used this bridge but the horses, mules and men swam across the river in a cold pelting rain without tents or other shelter. On the 15th, the troops marched toward Lexington in Henderson County, Tennessee.
On December 16, the expedition continued toward Lexington, making an additional before Forrest broke for camp to allow rest, dry clothing and prepare for the upcoming campaign. Upon inspection it was found that the greater part of the small supply of ammunition caps had become wet and unserviceable. However, Forrest had sent agents in behind the enemy lines, which paid off when a citizen returned to the Confederate encampment with 50,000 shotgun and pistol caps.
Battle of Lexington.
Forrest's unit encountered a Federal force eight miles from Lexington on December 17. Forrest sent Colonel James W. Starnes to engage and remove this obstacle and immediately led the remainder of his command by a road at a gallop to cut off the enemy retreat. He gave the lead to four Alabama companies from his old regiment under the command of Captain Frank B. Gurley. As soon as the artillery crossed a bridge about six miles from Lexington, General Forrest pushed on to where the enemy was found forming a strong position on an elevated ridge. Positioning George Gibbs Dibrell's 8th and Jacob B. Biffle's 19th Tennessee regiments as well as Gurley's Battalion and his own escort, Forrest attacked the left of the Union line and broke it, then turned and struck it on the flank again, scattering Colonel Isaac R. Hawkins' Tennessee Federals and leaving the 11th Illinois Cavalry Regiment and artillery to the brunt of the attack.
Capt. Gurley, with at most 200 men, captured 150 officers and men, including Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and Major Lucien H. Kerr, along with 300 small arms, mostly Sharps carbines, ammunition, 200 horses and wagons. Also captured was the Union artillery, consisting of two fully equipped 3-inch Ordnance rifles. These were used by General Forrest until the close of the war. Starnes captured an additional fifty federals as well as numerous weapons as the fleeing federals left them upon the road. The federals did slow the Confederates down a little, but Union positions near Beech Creek were quickly overrun. Without further resistance, the Confederates continued toward the town of Jackson, arriving on the afternoon of December 18. Ingersoll himself seemed to enjoy his captivity until paroled three days later.
Battle of Jackson.
The citizens of Jackson, supportive of the Confederate cause, reported Union reinforcements were on the way. Therefore, at 8 PM, Forrest detached Col. Dibrell and Maj. Jesse Forrest each with 100 men to move out toward Humboldt to seize the nearest railroad stations, with orders to capture any approaching trains and to destroy any tracks of the Mobile and Ohio line. At the same time, Forrest sent Col. Biffle south to Bolivar to carry out the same mission. Dibrell captured the garrison of 100 men and their supplies by 2 AM, about 8 miles north of Jackson, and Maj. Forrest also captured his garrison of 75 men and supplies; Biffle captured 50 men and supplies. With all three leaders having destroyed enough railroad track to wreak havoc upon the Mobile and Ohio for the foreseeable future, they returned to the Confederate camp by daybreak on December 19. The spoils of war to this point were distributed to the CSA troops, replacing the inferior supplies with which they had entered the field eight days earlier.
Officially the federal troops in Jackson were no less than 10,000 and perhaps as much as 13,000. Local citizens stated the Union force numbered more than 15,000. The Battle of Jackson is the first documented time that Forrest used the ruse of spreading his command thinly over a wide area to make his force appear larger; he also commanded the drums of his unit to be beaten in such a manner as to mimic the sound of a heavy infantry force.
In the afternoon of December 19, Forrest left Col. Robert M. Russell as a rear guard with 2,000 men while he continued his advance toward the town. Union Brig. Gen. Jeremiah C. Sullivan, in command of the troops defending Jackson, ordered Col. Adolph Engelmann to lead two infantry regiments northeast of the town in anticipation of Forrest's attack. Forrest ordered a cavalry charge against Engelmann's troops, who successfully repulsed the attack before retreating to Jackson again. In fact, Forrest did not intend to attack the town with the bulk of his army, and the charge against Engelmann amounted to little more than a means of occupying Union attentions while two other mounted columns destroyed railroad track to the north and south of the town. By 8 PM on December 19, Forrest had reassembled his unit, now holding 500 prisoners, 25 "excellent" wagons, his artillery by a section and well-armed and fully munitioned troops. He quickly retreated from Jackson and moved to attack Trenton and Humboldt.
Capture of Trenton.
At 5 AM on December 20, Col. Dibrell's regiment was sent to destroy a rail bridge at Spring Creek. Here he captured 100 more Yankees along with their arms and supplies. At the same time, Col. Starnes' regiment and a squadron from Biffle's regiment as well as Capt. William H. Forrest's independent company, approximately 750 men in total, were dispatched to capture the town of Humboldt, which was completed by 10 PM. The Confederates captured four caissons with their horses, about 500 stands of arms, 300,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition and a multitude of other supplies.
During this time Forrest was moving toward Trenton with his escort and the captured guns noted above. He had also added 160 new volunteers from Hickman and Perry counties. Forrest again left Col. Russell as his rear guard, who again captured federals with their supplies. Russell met up with Forrest in Trenton later that night.
Forrest reached Trenton at 10 PM on December 20, and began the attack forthwith with Maj. Nicholas N. Cox on his right. Forrest charged through town with his escort, during which two of his men were killed and three wounded, and then withdrew approximately 200 yards to what is now the Trenton Cemetery. Forrest fired his big guns toward the depot; after a brief skirmish, Capt. J.P. Strange, the Confederate Adjutant, posted the artillery and began firing again. When white flags were shown, Strange was directed to receive the surrender. Meeting with Union Col. Jacob Fry, an elderly officer asking the terms of surrender, Forrest replied, "unconditional". Realizing he had no other alternative, Col. Fry unswung his sword and handed it to Forrest, remarking sadly that it had been in his family for 40 years. General Forrest received the sword and handled it for an instant, then turned back to the colonel and said, "Take back your sword Colonel as it is a family relic; but I hope sir when next worn it will be in a better cause than that of attempting the subjugation of your countrymen." This type of charity by Forrest to his enemies was documented many times. In the course of the surrender ceremony, a fire broke out which was obviously set by the federals to prevent the Confederates from gaining the spoils of war. Forrest, along with Maj. Strange, pistols in hand, forced the federal prisoners to fight the fire or be shot. The general then turned to Col. Fry to inform him that the culprits would be punished in the "most summary manner".
Forrest with his escort and the new green volunteers managed to capture Trenton as the rest of his unit was scattered throughout the region. Forrest had no more than 275 men but captured 400 federal soldiers, including Colonels Fry and Hawkins, several field officers, 300 negroes, 1000 horses and mules, 13 wagons and ambulances, 7 caissons, 20,000 artillery rounds, 400,000 small-arms rounds, 100,000 rations of subsistence, large amounts of cavalry equipment, quartermaster stores, and soldier baggage, collectively valued at more than $500,000 (). Forrest paroled some 1,300 Union officers and enlisted men to return home, as the captured POWs were growing too numerous to manage. Some 800–900 remained prisoners and were marched under the command of Lt. Col. Nathan D. Collins to be turned over to the federals in Columbus, Kentucky.
Union City and turnaround.
On the morning of December 21, Forrest resumed his advance toward Union City while Dibrell stayed as rear guard. Seven miles north, near Dyer, Tennessee, Forrest captured a garrison of 30 men and its supplies. He burned more bridges and rails and traveled another seven miles, where he overtook his Commissary Maj. G.V. Rambaut. There was considerable federal resistance, and a firefight broke out against 250 federals who retreated to their fortification at Kenton Station (present-day Kenton, Tennessee). Forrest surrounded the stockade to prevent escape into the Obion Bottoms; after a few cannon shots the stockade surrendered with white flags fluttering from all directions. His men began to tear up all of the rails and burn all trestles in the vicinity. That night, Col. Starnes was ordered to destroy all rails along the 15-mile stretch of the Obion Bottoms.
The next morning, scouts reported that a federal force of some 10,000 men was moving from Jackson at a rapid pace. Despite this, Forrest continued his mission to Union City, still some 20 miles further up the road. In the meantime, Lt. Col. Collins was en route to Columbus and happened upon a beleaguered federal force who surrendered by his demand. Collins captured 250 men and supplies. On December 22, Forrest encamped and made haste to parole his new prisoners acquired since leaving Trenton. On December 23, some 300 men who were turned over to Col. Collins (approximately 1,400 men now) were sent to Columbus. Also on the 23rd, federal soldiers at an outpost near Moscow, Kentucky, some 12 miles distant, fled toward Columbus upon seeing the Confederates.
Reaching the northernmost point of his mission, Forrest turned south to return some 12 miles south of Union City. A courier from Col. Starnes informed him they had destroyed the trestle works to the south of the Obion River. The entire command spent December 24 and 25 demolishing the solid heavy trestles on the North and South Forks of the Obion River, then rested for a few hours. Reports stated that Trenton was now occupied