By late in 1863, the Union army occupying West Tennessee strongly defended the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, which ran eastward from Memphis through Moscow. Federal infantry, including the U.S. Colored Troops of the 2nd West Tennessee Infantry, manned a nearby fort that guarded a large wooden railroad bridge and a plank wagon bridge spanning the Wolf River, while Union guards in rifle pits protected State Line Road. At midday on December 4, Union Colonel Edward Hatch's cavalry brigade passed westward from a week-long patrol, and soon after crossing the bridge was fired on from ambush, throwing the force into panic and forcing it back to the river. The brigade charged with sabers, then dismounted and fought as infantry after Confederate reinforcements from Colonel L.S. Ross's Texas Cavalry Brigade arrived; many horses and men were shot in the river, and the fighting continued until the Union troops ran out of ammunition. Confederate Generals Stephen D. Lee and James R. Chalmers commanded the cavalry in the sudden assault, intending to burn the railroad bridge. Fighting lasted all afternoon, and the U.S. Colored Troops won special notice for bravery. Hatch was shot through the lung but survived. Near sunset, Union Colonel W.H. Morgan's infantry brigade arrived by train from LaGrange and drove off the Confederates. About 3,000 Confederates and 5,000 Federals were engaged, and the action was cited as proof that properly disciplined and commanded colored troops could and would fight well.