Confederate Horseholders

At the Battle of Parker's Crossroads, Forrest's cavalry fought dismounted, with one in four horsemen remaining mounted as horseholders to control the horses of three dismounted men and stay to the rear ready to bring the mounts forward if ordered. The horseholders of Colonel George Dibrell's and Major Nicholas Cox's battalions were in the orchard and field behind the Parker house when Colonel John Fuller's Ohio Brigade came into view. As Fuller's gunners fired on the Confederate batteries, three Ohio regiments swept down from the ridge into the fields behind the Parker house. Focused on an apparent surrender taking place a quarter mile south, the Confederate horseholders were caught completely by surprise. In the melee that followed, they lost control of the mounts and had to abandon them, and many of the stampeding horses were later rounded up by Fuller's men. Lieutenant Colonel Zephaniah S. Spaulding of the 27th Ohio reported that by Fuller's order his line charged across the open fields and in an orchard captured a large number of Confederate cavalry horses with complete equipment being held by a detail assigned for that purpose. Dibrell later recalled that while about 300 prisoners were being parlayed over for surrender, another Union infantry brigade under General Sullivan fired on the horseholders before its approach was known, after which Forrest ordered a retreat carried out in great confusion as the horseholders were demoralized and many men were captured trying to get their horses.

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee · United States