During Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's raid through West Tennessee from Dec. 15, 1962-Jan 3, 1863, his cavalry brigade destroyed railroads and severed Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's supply line between Columbus, Kentucky, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. After crossing the Tennessee River at Clifton, defeating Union Col. Robert G. Ingersoll's cavalry at Lexington, capturing Trenton and Union City, ranging briefly into Kentucky, and raiding back through Tennessee while evading defeat at Parker's Cross Roads, Forrest again crossed the river at Clifton, prompting Grant to change his supply base to Memphis. Alarmed by Forrest's early success in counties to the east, Union Col. Adolph Engelmann stationed his brigade here on both sides of Cotton Grove Road to slow his progress. On the morning of December 19, 1862, as Forrest's cavalry rode south toward Jackson and approached this position, Federal soldiers fired a deadly volley that killed or wounded several men and horses. Forrest's cavalrymen fell back to the next ridge north, leaving four dismounted troopers behind to use their dead horses for cover until they were captured. The Federals then regrouped behind the cemetery's iron and wood fence and repelled a brisk cavalry charge, inflicting additional dead and wounded on the road. Forrest unlimbered three guns and shelled the Federal position, but most rounds passed over the prone Federals and burst in the treetops. As the Confederate gunners began to find their range and Engelmann was told that his outnumbered troops were in danger of being flanked, he withdrew toward Jackson. Forrest then confined the Federals to their fortifications there, allowing him to continue raids against Union rail and communication lines in West Tennessee. During the four-hour battle, Confederate losses were 65 killed, wounded, or missing, and Federal losses were 2 killed and 6 wounded. Except for the paving of Cotton Grove Road, the natural features around the cemetery, established in 1825, remain unchanged.