Fighting for Trenton

Fighting for Trenton. Raid on the Depot. (preface) , Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led his cavalry brigade on a raid through West Tennessee, Dec. 15, 1862-Jan. 3, 1863, destroying railroads and severing Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's supply line between Columbus, Kentucky and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Forrest crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton, defeated Union Col. Robert C. Ingersoll's cavalry at Lexington, captured Trenton and Union City, and ranged briefly into Kentucky. He raided back through Tennessee, evaded defeat at Parker's Cross Roads, and crossed the river again at Clifton. Grant changed his supply base to Memphis., (main text) , As Confederate Gen. Nathan B. Forrest’s cavalry brigade approached Trenton in December 1862, Union Col. Jacob Fry prepared to meet the attack. Although Fry had fortified the high ground overlooking the town, he received orders to transfer his 500 men to Jackson. This left him with 250 “convalescents, stragglers, fugitives, and other soldiers”, only enough to defend the Mobile and Ohio Railroad depot, which he barricaded with cotton bales. On December 20, he stationed 25 sharpshooters in a brick building across the street behind a parapet on the roof, and 6 more in the windows of another brick building. Others were posted in a nearby “stockade.” When Forrest’s men rode into town at 3:00 that afternoon, the Federals opened fire from the buildings and other positions. The Confederates then moved out of range and surrounded the Union position, shelling it from the earthworks that Fry had constructed. Fry decided to surrender, as Forrest “could have leveled the stockade, depot, and all in thirty minutes, and probably killed and wounded a large portion of our men, while we could have done them no damage, being armed only with old guns, without bayonets, and therefore unable to make a charge.”, Forrest reported only two men killed and seven wounded. He claimed that the Federals lost two killed and seven hundred prisoners. The Confederates captured military stores, which they destroyed, as well as several hundred cavalry horses. Forrest took those that were in good condition and gave the rest to the town’s residents. The next morning, he paroled all the prisoners and rode on toward Union City., (captions) , (lower left) Forrest's First West Tennessee Raid, Dec. 15, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863 , (lower center) Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest Courtesy Library of Congress , (upper right) “Rail-Road Station at Trenton, Tenn.,” Harper’s Weekly, September 13, 1862