The Battle of Brice's Cross Roads, also known as the Battle of Tishomingo Creek or the Battle of Guntown, was fought on Friday, June 10, 1864, near Baldwyn, Mississippi, then part of the Confederate States of America. A Federal expedition from Memphis, Tennessee, of 4,800 infantry and 3,300 cavalry, under the command of Brigadier-General Samuel D. Sturgis, was defeated by a Confederate force of 3,500 cavalry under the command of Major-General Nathan B. Forrest.
Background
In March 1864, Lieutenant-General Ulysses Grant, newly named General in Chief of the Armies of the United States, and his most trusted subordinate Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman, planned a new, coordinated strategy to cripple the Confederate States and win the war. Grant would smash General Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia and head for Richmond. At the same time, Sherman would destroy the other main Confederate force, the Army of Tennessee, and seize the key city of Atlanta. Calling itself the "Gate City of the South," Atlanta was the strategic back door to the Confederate States. It was the South's most productive arsenal after Richmond and a critical transportation hub: Four railroads radiating from the city carried supplies to their forces.
Prelude
Sherman began his Atlanta campaign during the first week of May, moving slowly south while battling Confederate forces under General Joseph E. Johnston, an excellent defensive fighter. Johnston called in reinforcements, including Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk and two divisions of his Army of Mississippi, which in turn left Major-General Stephen D. Lee in command of all remaining Confederate forces within Polk's Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. Lee took charge of the department, but wisely gave Forrest authority to act independently in the northern part of Mississippi and Tennessee. Sturgis's forces fled wildly, pursued across six counties on their return to Memphis before the exhausted Confederate attackers retired.
Aftermath
In correspondence with Brigadier-General Sturgis, Colonel Alex Wilkin, commander of the 9th Minnesota, listed several reasons for the loss of the battle. He stated that General Sturgis, knowing that his men were under-supplied, having been on less than half rations, had been hesitant to advance on the enemy, but had done so against his better judgment because he had been ordered to do so. When the cavalry had engaged the enemy, many of the infantry had been ordered to advance double-time to support the cavalry. In their weakened condition, many had fallen out in the advance. Those who did arrive were exhausted at the beginning of the battle, while the Confederates were fresh and well fed, owing to a large supply in their rear. There their marksmanship and skirmisher tactics enabled 400 men of the 59th U.S. Colored to not be overtaken by the confederate cavalry at the Tishomingo bridge. After which the Chippewa and African Americans fell back together.
! width=15% | Commander
! width=15% | Division
! width=10% | Brigade
! width=30% | Unit
|-
| rowspan=25 | Brigadier General<br>Samuel D. Sturgis<br>thumb|center|upright=0.4
| rowspan=15 | Infantry Division<br>Colonel William L. McMillen<br>thumb|center|upright=0.3
| rowspan=7 | 1st Brigade
| 114th Illinois Infantry Regiment
|-
| 93rd Indiana Infantry Regiment
|-
| 9th Minnesota Infantry Regiment
|-
| 72nd Ohio Infantry Regiment
|-
| 95th Ohio Infantry Regiment
|-
| Battery "E", 1st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment
|-
| 6th Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery
|-
| rowspan=5 | 2nd Brigade
| 81st Illinois Infantry Regiment
|-
| 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment
|-
| 108th Illinois Infantry Regiment
|-
| 113th Illinois Infantry Regiment
|-
| Battery "B", 2nd Illinois Light Artillery Regiment
|-
| rowspan=3 | 3rd Brigade
| 55th United States Colored Infantry Regiment
|-
| 59th United States Colored Infantry Regiment
|-
| Battery F, 2nd Regiment Light Artillery U.S. Colored Troops
|-
| rowspan=10 | Cavalry Division<br>Brigadier General<br>Benjamin Grierson<br>thumb|center|upright=0.3
| rowspan=6 | 1st Brigade
| 3rd Illinois Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 9th Illinois Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 7th Indiana Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 4th Missouri Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 2nd New Jersey Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 19th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment
|-
| rowspan=4 | 2nd Brigade
| 3rd Iowa Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 4th Iowa Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 10th Missouri Cavalry Regiment
|-
| 7th Independent Battery Wisconsin Light Artillery
|-
|}
Battlefield preservation
305px|thumb|right|Map of Brice's Cross Roads Battlefield core and study areas by the [[American Battlefield Protection Program]]
The Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site, established in 1929, commemorates the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads and is considered one of the best preserved of the American Civil War. The National Park Service erected and maintains monuments and interpretive panels on a small plot at the cross roads. In 1994, concerned citizens organized the Brice's Cross Roads National Battlefield Commission, Inc., to protect and preserve additional battlefield land. With assistance from the Civil War Trust (now the American Battlefield Trust), and the support of federal, state, and local governments, BCNBC has purchased for preservation over . Much of the land was purchased from The Agnew Family, who still own some of the property that became the site of the battlefield. The modern Bethany Presbyterian Church is at the southeast side of the cross roads. At the time of the battle this congregation's meeting house was located further south along the Baldwyn Road. Bethany Cemetery, adjacent to the National Park Service monument, predates the American Civil War. Many of the area's earliest settlers are buried here. The graves of more than 90 Confederate soldiers killed at the cross roads are also located in Bethany Cemetery. Federal soldiers were buried in common graves, but were later reinterred in the Memphis National Cemetery.
The American Battlefield Trust and its partners, including BCNBC, have been acquiring and preserving land at Brice's Cross Roads since 1996, when the Trust's predecessor organization, the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS), acquired and preserved 797.7 acres – about two-thirds of the battlefield – in two purchases. In 2001, two years after the merger of the APCWS and the original Civil War Trust, the new organization, the Civil War Preservation Trust, now known as the American Battlefield Trust, acquired 512.8 additional acres. Additional purchases during the past 16 years have increased the total battlefield land acquired and preserved to 1,500 acres as of late-2021, which is nearly the entire battlefield.
See also
- List of American Civil War battles
- Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1864
References
Footnotes
Citations
Further reading
External links
<!--
===================================================================
WIKIPEDIA IS NOT A COLLECTION OF LINKS. Only a limited number of new links
should be added to this article. PLEASE DO NOT ADD external links to sites with
information already in the article or in its sources.
See Wikipedia:External links and Wikipedia:Spam for further details
===================================================================
-->
- Battle of Brice's Cross Roads at American Battlefield Protection Program
- Battle of Brice's Cross Roads at American Battlefield Trust
- Battle of Brices Cross Roads at National Park Service
<!-- Please: Follow the WP:EL guideline where possible and consider discussing on the talk page. Thank you. -->