In mid-1864, Nathan Bedford Forrest's command in northern Mississippi and southwestern Tennessee alarmed Union planners because its fast-moving cavalry threatened the single railroad line that supplied William T. Sherman's advance on Atlanta. These concerns led to the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads on June 10, 1864, after Samuel D. Sturgis marched from Memphis on June 1 with 8,100 troops to keep Forrest from attacking Sherman's supply line, while Forrest was ordered back to Mississippi to meet the Union move with 3,500 cavalry. After eight days of marching, Sturgis met Forrest east of Tishomingo Creek, where rain-soaked roads and poor conditions had stretched the Union command for more than six miles. Following an initial skirmish around noon, Forrest attacked the leading Union cavalry with a stronger dismounted force and drove it back to a second line formed by arriving infantry, whose men reached the front exhausted from double-time marching over impassable roads in the day's heat. About 2:00 p.m., Forrest struck the second Union line, and despite being outnumbered, his troops broke the Federals under repeated charges. A determined stand by Union artillery at the Cross Roads and by rear guard infantry at the Tishomingo Creek Bridge enabled most of the Union force to retreat west of the bridge, but Forrest's mounted cavalry pursued them for more than 25 miles and inflicted heavy losses. Federal losses were 223 killed, 394 wounded, and 1623 missing, along with 18 of 20 artillery pieces and 200 supply wagons, while Confederate losses were 96 killed and 396 wounded. Forrest later summarized the victory by saying, "Well, I got there first with the most men," but despite the success, the wider war in 1864 turned on larger campaigns, as Atlanta fell by late July, Grant besieged Petersburg and Richmond in October, and Forrest's command remained bottled up in northern Mississippi before moving into Alabama in November with little effect on the war's major theaters.