At the Battle of Thompson's Station on March 5, 1863, Union commanders were shown that their armies still lacked control of vital transportation routes in Middle Tennessee. On March 4, U.S. Gen. John Coburn led a force from Franklin to determine whether the turnpike and railroad routes between Franklin and Columbia were open for his army to begin its advance southward, but the Federal troops never reached Columbia. Coburn's men encountered an advance force of 1,200 cavalry led by C.S. Gen. William H. Jackson, part of the overall command of Gen. Earl Van Dorn. After the sides exchanged artillery fire, Coburn's cavalry attacked, and the Confederates made an orderly retreat into the hills south of Thompson's Station, where Van Dorn joined them and increased the force to 6,000. Unsure of each other's numbers, both armies camped until morning, but during the night Van Dorn learned the small size of the Union force while Coburn learned that his opponent was larger. The next morning Coburn moved first, taking high ground overlooking Thompson's Station, and his artillery fired on the Confederates and the town itself. His assault at first succeeded and pushed into town, while he ordered much of his artillery and supply wagons to return to Franklin. The Confederates' superior numbers quickly erased those gains, and C.S. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest's cavalry rode east to flank Coburn and cut off his retreat. Surrounded, Coburn and his remaining men resisted Confederate attacks for five hours until exhaustion forced their surrender, turning the surveillance mission into a Union fiasco. Union losses were 1,221 captured, 48 killed, and 267 wounded, while Confederates reported 357 killed, wounded, or missing. Coburn and his troops were only briefly imprisoned, and by June 1863 most had been exchanged and returned to the North. During the battle, the Thompson family took refuge in the basement of Homestead Manor, then owned by Charles Banks, and seventeen-year-old Alice Thompson, daughter of Dr. Elijah Thompson, saw the 3rd Arkansas Regiment's color bearer fall in the yard, rushed out, raised the flag, and led the regiment to victory.