As Gen. Ulysses S. Grant launched the Mississippi Central R. R. Campaign in November 1862, he ordered Union cavalry in Arkansas on a raid toward Grenada. Near Oakland, General C. C. Washburn and 1,900 cavalry met Confederate Col. John C. Griffith's Texas Cavalry Brigade on December 3, 1862. After several hours of fighting, both sides withdrew. Although there was no victor, the presence of Union troops at Oakland forced Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton to withdraw from Abbeville to Grenada.