Johnsonville was a Civil War engagement fought in Tennessee, 1864. It was a Confederate victory.
In an effort to check the Union army's advance through Georgia, Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led a 23-day raid culminating in an attack on the Yankee supply base at Johnsonville, Tennessee. Swinging north from Corinth, Mississippi, toward the Kentucky border and temporarily blockading the Tennessee River at Fort Herman, Forrest then moved southward along the Tennessee River's west bank, capturing several U.S. steamers and a gunboat which he later had to abandon. On November 4, Forrest began positioning his artillery across the river from the Federal supply base and landing at Johnsonville. The Union discovered the Confederates finishing their entrenchments and battery emplacements in the afternoon of the 4th. The Union gunboats and land batteries, across the river, engaged the Confederates in an artillery duel. The Rebel guns, however, were so well-positioned, the Federals were unable to hinder them. In fact, Confederate artillery fire disabled the gunboats. Fearing that the Rebels might cross the river and capture the transports, the Federals set fire to them. The wind then extended the fire to the piles of stores on the levee and to a warehouse loaded with supplies. Seeing the fire, the Confederates began firing on the steamboats, barges, and warehouses to prevent the Federals from putting out the fire. An inferno illuminated Forrest's night withdrawal, and he escaped Union clutches without serious loss. Damages totaled $2.2 million. The next morning, on the 5th, some Confederate artillery bombarded the depot in the morning but then left. Although this brilliant victory further strengthened Forrest's reputation and destroyed a great amount of Union materiel, it failed to stem the tide of Union success in Georgia. By this time, Forrest often harassed the Union Army, but, as this engagement demonstrated, he could not stop their operations.
Fought over two days, November 4 and 5, 1864, the clash at Johnsonville unfolded in Benton and Humphreys counties, Tennessee, amid the ongoing Civil War. Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, commanding Confederate cavalry, brought his 23-day sweep through western Tennessee to a close by striking the Union supply depot at Johnsonville. His assault left 28 Union boats and barges wrecked along the Tennessee River, along with millions of dollars in destroyed supplies, dealing a heavy blow to the logistics that Union Major General George H. Thomas relied upon out of Nashville. This setback slowed Thomas's efforts to counter the push into Tennessee by Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, an offensive remembered as the Franklin-Nashville campaign, though Thomas would ultimately drive Hood back.
Today a portion of the site survives within Johnsonville State Historic Park, while much of the ground where the fighting once took place now lies beneath the waters of Kentucky Lake, formed in 1944.
Federal forces in Tennessee depended heavily on the Tennessee River for their supply needs, with goods unloaded at Johnsonville before continuing by rail toward Nashville. As autumn 1864 approached, these shipments were intended mainly to sustain Thomas's Army of the Cumberland. At that same time, Hood led his army across northern Alabama, aiming to push into Tennessee itself. His force had set out from the Atlanta, Georgia area in late September, heading northwest in hopes that wrecking the Federal supply network would draw Major General William T. Sherman's troops into a decisive fight. Sherman gave chase only as far as Gaylesville, Alabama, before choosing to turn his men back toward Atlanta. From there he launched his march across Georgia toward the sea, laying waste to supplies and infrastructure along the way. Since federal troops had held Tennessee since 1862, Sherman placed the responsibility of guarding it squarely on Thomas.
To sever the vital supply link running to Nashville, Lieutenant General Richard Taylor sent Forrest on an extensive cavalry raid across western Tennessee. Fort Heiman, situated along the Tennessee River just north of Johnsonville, became his first target, since capturing it would cut off Federal boat traffic heading upriver to that town. Forrest's men set out on October 16, 1864, though many were still worn down from an earlier campaign; he sent them off to scatter, resupply, secure fresh horses, and rejoin him afterward. He resumed his northward advance on October 24 and arrived at Fort Heiman by October 28, where he set up his artillery. Over the following two days, his guns forced the surrender of three steamers, the Mazeppa, Anna, and Venus, along with the gunboat Undine, effectively halting Federal river shipments
The results were lopsided in Forrest's favor, with minimal losses inflicted on his own side for damage of staggering proportions. His tally listed just two men killed and nine wounded among his ranks. On the Union side, he counted four gunboats, fourteen transports, twenty barges, twenty six artillery pieces, and 150 prisoners lost, along with property damage he valued at $6.7 million, a figure equivalent to roughly $109 million today. A Union officer, however, assessed the financial toll differently, placing it closer to $2.2 million, or about $35.8 million in current terms.
Beyond the immediate destruction, the raid rattled Union commanders enough that they grew wary of Sherman's intention to march through Georgia rather than turn and engage Hood and Forrest head on. Heavy rains slowed Forrest's own column as it moved toward Perryville, Tennessee, before finally arriving in Corinth, Mississippi, on November 10, 1864.
Earlier, while Forrest had still been conducting operations in western Tennessee, Confederate theater commander Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard issued orders on November 3 attaching Forrest's cavalry to Hood's Army of Tennessee for the upcoming Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Rather than push northward from Tuscumbia, Alabama, right away, Hood chose to hold his advance until Forrest could join him, which happened on November 16. That pause gave Thomas valuable time to strengthen his defenses ahead of the Battle of Nashville the next month. When the fighting came, Thomas turned back the Confederate effort to reclaim the city, a loss that in effect brought the war in the Western Theater to a close.
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