Union troops in West Tennessee and north Mississippi depended on the railroad, and Confederate high command ordered General Nathan Bedford Forrest to cut that supply line. Forrest left Columbia on December 11, 1862, with approximately 1,700 men and added 430 more when Colonel Alonzo Napier joined him near Trenton. Although Union General Jeremiah Sullivan knew Forrest was moving, he did not know where or with what strength. At Lexington on December 18, Forrest's cavalry captured 148 soldiers and two artillery pieces, then sent part of its force to wreck railroad track and attacked the Union garrison at Jackson with the rest; after an hour's fight at Salem Cemetery just east of the city, Sullivan retreated. On December 20, Sullivan set out to find Forrest as Forrest pushed north up the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, and in four days his cavalry wrecked bridges, trestles, and stockades at Carroll, Humboldt, Trenton, Rutherford Station, Kenton Station, and Union City, Tennessee, and Moscow, Kentucky. Sullivan hoped to trap Forrest between Huntingdon and Lexington before the Confederates could cross the Tennessee River. On December 29, the Union brigades met in Huntingdon, fifteen miles north of Parker's Crossroads, where Colonel Cyrus Dunham had 1,554 men and Colonel John W. Fuller had 1,200 men, each with three pieces of artillery; the next day Dunham marched south and learned at Clarksburg that Forrest's cavalry was only five miles away. Early on December 31, 1862, Dunham urged Sullivan to hurry Fuller's brigade south and marched out to meet Forrest. The two forces first clashed at Hicks field, about one mile northwest of here, in a short, uneven fight in which the Confederates disabled a Union gun and pushed the Federals to Parker's Crossroads. There Dunham placed his brigade parallel to the Lexington-Huntingdon road, sent his supply wagons to the rear, and ordered infantry to assault Forrest's vanguard, but the Confederates brushed aside the Union advance and shifted east, prompting Dunham to move his line to a low ridge at the south end of the field. Forrest then deployed his artillery and dismounted cavalry in an arc around and north of the Union position and opened the main engagement. In an unconventional strategy, Forrest placed his artillery in front, using dismounted cavalry to support it while planning to flank the Union line on both sides and get Colonel Russell's regiment in its rear. Dunham tried to disable the Confederate guns, but had only infantry to send against them, and relentless artillery fire forced the Union troops back to a split-rail fence at the edge of a wood as the Confederates flanked their position. As Forrest demanded surrender, Fuller's brigade arrived behind the Confederate line. Completely surprised, Forrest turned to attack the Union reinforcements, slowing the Federal assault long enough for the Confederates to escape the battlefield.