Coming here by transport from Nashville, Colonel Abel D. Streight marched his task force of 2 companies of cavalry and 4 regiments of mounted infantry to Fort Henry, seizing horses and mules en route to complete mounting them. Reembarking there and landing at Eastport, Mississippi, he marched east to destroy Confederate resources in north Georgia. His 1500-man force was captured near Rome, Georgia, by Brigadier General N. B. Forrest with about 600 men, who had come from Columbia, Tennessee, to intercept him.