After the initial wave of Morgan's 1st Brigade crossed the Cumberland River, about twenty men were sent to reconnoiter west of Burkesville and divert the attention of the 3,000 Union soldiers camped at Marrowbone, seven miles away, from the river crossing by Morgan's 2nd Brigade. The Confederate cavalrymen rode from the Courthouse Square in Burkesville along the Glasgow Road toward the Union camp, engaged Union pickets, and were joined by the 9th Tennessee Cavalry and supported by the 6th Kentucky Cavalry. At Norris Branch, Morgan surprised the advance elements of a 300-man Union cavalry column with rifle and artillery fire, sending the Federals back down the road as the Confederates pursued them. Dust from the retreat kept the Southerners from seeing that a Union regiment had formed a line of battle, and one of Quirk's scouts stopped General Morgan's horse before the charge struck the position. The Union troops then fired a short-range volley that temporarily unhorsed Maj. William P. Elliott. In the exchange, two Confederates were mortally wounded and two others slightly wounded, while Captain Tom Quirk suffered a severe wound to his left wrist that broke his arm; Federal losses were 5 killed and 15 wounded. Quirk's wound cost Morgan his chief scout and forced him to return to Tennessee just as the Great Raid was beginning, and two days later at Tebbs Bend the Confederates paid heavily for poorly scouting a strong Union position.