Federal troops at Johnsonville served as a garrison protecting the supply depot and guarding the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad. Between May and November 1864, that railroad carried supplies from Johnsonville to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army in Georgia. At its peak, the garrison included more than 2500 men from various regiments, including the 43rd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment; the 12th, 13th, and 100th United States Colored Troop Regiments; the 1st Kansas Battery; the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery; the 8th Iowa Cavalry; the 11th Tennessee Infantry, Co. A, mounted; U.S. Quartermaster Department and U.S. Navy personnel; the 6th TN Cavalry (US); and the 2nd TN Mounted Infantry (US). During the Battle of Johnsonville on November 4, 1864, sixty percent of the depot's warehouses and supplies stockpiled at the wharf were burned. After the battle, most of the garrison went by rail to Nashville to help defend the city against the Confederate attack of December 15-16, 1864. Following the Battle of Nashville, the 13th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment returned to Johnsonville to guard the depot for the rest of the war. Federal soldiers at Johnsonville lived in tents, log or lumber huts, and larger barracks, and compared to most front-line troops they lived comfortably, with abundant clothing, food, and ammunition, lax drill, prepared meals, bunks, and roofed quarters. Most of Johnsonville's garrison troops had not experienced combat before November 1864.