Near the Salem Street bridge over the Mississippi Central Railroad, Van Dorn's cavalry column split into three attacking parties to seize Holly Springs. One moved against Union cavalry at the Marshall County Fairgrounds, another attacked infantry camped in fields before the railroad depot, and a third confronted infantry in the Town Square. McCulloch's 1st Mississippi Cavalry raced east down Salem Avenue and north toward the 2nd Illinois Cavalry at the fairgrounds, while McCulloch's 2nd Missouri Cavalry dismounted and attacked the camp of the 101st Illinois Infantry south of Salem Avenue and east of the railroad. Griffith's troopers of the 3rd, 6th, and 9th Texas Cavalry charged through the Federal infantry camp, past the railroad depot, and down Depot Street to the Federal infantry camp in the Town Square. Jackson's Tennesseans rode north of town to guard against Federal reinforcements from that direction. After Van Dorn's men gained control of Holly Springs, they burned the unoccupied Federal hospital one-half mile north beside the Mississippi Central Railroad. Before the Civil War, its buildings had housed the Jones-McElwain Iron Foundry, which cast decorative iron grillwork among other products. In 1861, the Confederate government converted the foundry into the Confederate States Armory at Holly Springs for manufacturing firearms, then removed the machinery after Corinth fell to Union forces in May 1862. When Federal forces occupied Holly Springs in November 1862, they turned the empty buildings into a 2,000-bed hospital.