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 during the American Civil War. 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. Forrest inflicted heavy casualties on the Federal force and captured more than 1,600 prisoners of war, 16 artillery pieces, and wagons loaded with supplies. Although the battle had little impact on the outcome of the war in the western theater, historians have considered Brice's Cross Roads as one of the best examples of Forrest's skill as a master tactician.
In the spring of 1864 Union General William T. Sherman launched his Atlanta Campaign, aimed at capturing one of the South's major cities. Sherman's supply lines depended on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad which passed through Tennessee and was vulnerable to Confederate raids. Throughout the spring of 1864, Confederate cavalry forces based in Mississippi led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest launched successful attacks throughout Tennessee, Mississippi, and even as far as Kentucky. Aiming to keep Forrest at a safe distance, General Samuel D. Sturgis was ordered to mount an expedition into Mississippi to counter Forrest and keep him away from the Union lines.
Sturgis set out in May, but only made it as far as Ripley, Mississippi before turning back without encountering Confederate troops. He then left Tennessee again on June 2 with a force approximately 8,000 strong, composed of a division of cavalry with two brigades, led by General Benjamin Grierson, and a division of infantry with four brigades, led by Colonel William L. McMillen. Sturgis had a great deal of discretion in his movements, but was generally expected to "proceed to Corinth, Mississippi, by way of Salem and Ruckersville, capture any force that may be there, then proceed south, destroying the Mobile and Ohio Railroad to Tupelo and Okolona, and as far as possible toward Macon and Columbus."
Forrest was indeed preparing to attack the railroad in Tennessee, and set out from Tupelo on June 1 with troops from the cavalry divisions of Abraham Buford and Phillip Roddey. On June 3, Forrest received a message from General Stephen D. Lee, informing him that Sturgis' column was on the move, recalling Forrest to Tupelo to assemble his cavalry for battle with the Union troops.
Almost immediately, the Union column encountered heavy rain, which turned the roads to mud and brought their progress to a standstill. Cavalry units reported no Confederates near Corinth, so Sturgis proceeded to Ripley, where they skirmished with some Confederate scouts. Upon reaching Ripley, the Union general considered turning back. According to Sturgis, it became "a serious question in my mind as to whether or not I should proceed any farther. The rain still fell in torrents. The artillery and wagons were literally mired down, and the starved and exhausted animals could with difficulty drag them along." Already by June 9, the Union expedition had to send 400 sick or exhausted troops back to Memphis. However, the Union commanders reasoned that they had made no encounter with the enemy as of yet, and by turning back after Ripley they would merely be repeating the incomplete expedition of the month prior. Sturgis then determined to continue onward.
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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