Woodbury, on the Murfreesboro-McMinnville Turnpike, saw two significant Civil War actions in 1862–1863. On July 12–13, 1862, Confederate Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest marched through Cannon County to raid Murfreesboro and bivouacked with his men on Woodbury's eastern outskirts, where Confederate Col. Baxter Smith wrote that they reached the town about midnight and found the whole population seemingly in the streets. The Confederates then attacked the Federal garrison in Murfreesboro, capturing about 1,200 Union soldiers and rescuing prisoners, including several prominent county residents. After the Battle of Stone's River early in 1863, Union troops occupied the county, first camping at Readyville, and fighting became almost a daily affair along the turnpike between Readyville and Woodbury. Union lieutenant and future author Ambrose Bierce of the 9th Indiana Infantry recalled months of constant quarrel between these outposts, much of it involving cavalry detachments on the road. In a January 1863 skirmish on Woodbury's western side, Confederate Col. John B. Hutcheson's 2nd Kentucky Cavalry fought four Union regiments under Col. William B. Hazen; Hutcheson, who had vowed that no live Yankee would enter the town except over his dead body, was killed in the fighting, and Union Capt. T.D. McClelland of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry called the action quite a brilliant little affair.