During the Civil War, Jackson was the transportation crossroads of West Tennessee, and after the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, 50 miles southeast, Union commanders took control of its railroad junction to use the tracks as supply lines for their Mississippi campaigns while Confederates contested that control. In September 1862, the Battle of Britton Lane took place south of Jackson at Denmark. In November 1862, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg ordered Gen. Nathan B. Forrest to launch a major cavalry raid against Union garrisons in Jackson and other occupied railroad towns. Forrest led his cavalry brigade through West Tennessee from Dec. 15, 1862, to Jan. 3, 1863, destroying railroads and severing Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's supply line between Columbus, Kentucky, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. He crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton, defeated Union Col. Robert G. Ingersoll's cavalry at Lexington, captured Trenton and Union City, ranged briefly into Kentucky, raided back through Tennessee, evaded defeat at Parker's Cross Roads, and crossed the river again at Clifton, after which Grant changed his supply base to Memphis. Union Gen. Jeremiah C. Sullivan fortified Jackson, ordering that "the negroes in town will ... be pressed into the service, and be employed in carrying stores within the inner line." On December 19, the two sides clashed on Jackson's outskirts at Salem Cemetery, and the next day the Confederates moved north to take the Federal garrisons at Humboldt and Trenton. After Confederate forces reoccupied Jackson, a Union expedition from LaGrange drove them out after a stiff fight on July 13, 1863, as several Federal regiments, including Col. Fielding Hurst's 1st Tennessee Cavalry, fought on the streets of downtown Jackson. Part of the town burned, extensive looting occurred, and Federal commanders blamed and fined Hurst, who returned a few months later and forced city leaders to repay the fine.