The Battle of Tupelo, also known as the Battle of Harrisburg, was a battle of the American Civil War fought July 14–15, 1864, near Tupelo, Mississippi. Union troops were sent from Memphis, Tennessee into Mississippi to pursue Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry Corps, which had defeated a larger Union force at the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads the month prior. Outside the town of Tupelo on July 14, the outnumbered Confederate forces made a badly-coordinated frontal assault on the fortified Union lines, suffering heavy losses. While Forrest's Cavalry survived the battle, Union General Andrew J. Smith's victory at Tupelo ensured the safety of Sherman's supply lines during the Atlanta campaign.
"I will order them to make up a force and go out and follow Forrest to the death, if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury. There never will be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead."
After the Vicksburg Campaign of 1863 and the Meridian campaign of early 1864, the attention of the Union army and its leading generals shifted to fighting in Virginia and Georgia. General Sherman's campaign in Georgia depended on the vital supply line of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, which passed through Tennessee. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry Corps posed a threat to Sherman's lines, and Forrest had already proven himself to be an innovator in cavalry tactics. Although his forces were usually outnumbered by Union troops, Forrest was a pioneer of mobile warfare, striking fast against vulnerable infrastructure and supply depots, and using aggressive tactics to psychologically intimidate stronger opponents.
In June, a Union force was sent into North Mississippi to counter Forrest, but the larger Union army was soundly defeated by Forrest at the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads on June 10. To deal with this threat, General Sherman ordered that another expedition be mounted against Forrest's Cavalry, to be led by Andrew Jackson Smith and Joseph A. Mower, with the objective of drawing Forrest into open battle and killing him if possible.
Following his victory at Brice's Cross Roads, Forrest had established a base at Tupelo, Mississippi in mid June. On July 5 the right wing of the Union 16th Army Corps, commanded by Major-General Andrew J. Smith, advanced into north Mississippi from La Grange, Tennessee. The Union columns proceeded without encountering major resistance until Pontotoc, where the advance was checked by Confederate Brigadier-General James R. Chalmers. Union and Confederate forces clashed on July 12, with Forrest's advance guard ordered to stall the Union troops while the Confederate preparations for battle were made near Okolona. Lieutenant-General Stephen D. Lee also joined the Confederate forces and assumed general command, to Forrest's deep resentment. Forrest often clashed with his commanding officers, and he resented that Lee had recently been promoted over him, despite Forrest's recent victory at Brice's Cross Roads. Lee later said that he offered Forrest the overall command at Tupelo, but Forrest refused and insisted that Lee as the ranking officer should lead the Confederate force. Rather than wait for an opportune moment to strike, General Lee wished to bring the Union forces to battle quickly so he could dispatch part of his force to reinforce Mobile, Alabama, where another attack was expected imminently.
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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