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.
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 69 miles (111 km). 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 8 miles (13 km) toward Lexington in Henderson County, Tennessee.
On December 16, the expedition continued toward Lexington, making an additional 18 miles (29 km) 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.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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