A Lull in the Fighting

Colonel Cyrus Dunham had defeated the Confederate attack on the rear of his forces, but his Union command was divided and confused. Dunham, who had held the brigade together all day by riding up and down the line and calming his men, was south of the fence with part of his force. As Confederate artillery continued pounding the position, the thin line at the split-rail fence began to waver and white flags appeared. General Nathan Bedford Forrest sent an officer under a flag of truce to demand Dunham's surrender, and as the officer rode toward the Union position both sides stopped firing. Forrest wrote that his forces occupied the battlefield and had demanded the brigade's surrender, while Union officers reported that firing had ceased on both sides and flags of truce were passing between the opposing forces. Because military protocol required hostilities to cease when a flag of truce approached, the soldiers at Parker's Crossroads paused and relaxed, and Forrest's adjutant, Major John Strange, rode to the Union wagon train to inventory what he believed were captured goods. Dunham refused Forrest's first demand for surrender, and after Forrest sent the officer back a second time to demand unconditional surrender, Dunham refused again. While the two sides parlayed, Union Colonel John Fuller deployed his artillery at the Parker house and formed his men in line of battle north of Forrest's line, and Dunham's reinforcements arrived.

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee · United States