Brice's Cross Roads

June 10, 1864
Also known as: Tishomingo Creek
Prentiss and Union Counties, MS
Campaign: Forrest's Defense of Mississippi (1864)

Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis, USA
Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA

Union forces were divisions of infantry and cavalry (totaling about 8,500); Forrest had a small cavalry Corps. Union losses were about five times Forrest's 500 men. At the beginning of June 1864, Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest set out with his cavalry corps of about 2,000 men to enter Middle Tennessee and destroy the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, which was carrying men and supplies to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman in Georgia. He turned back when he learned the size of the Union force that was angling to intercept him. On June 10, 1864, Forrest's smaller Confederate force defeated a much larger Union column under Brig. Gen. Samuel Sturgis at Brice's Cross Roads. This brilliant tactical victory against long odds cemented Forrest's reputation as one of the foremost mounted infantry leaders of the war.