Johnsonville was a major Federal supply depot on the Tennessee River at the western terminus of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, completed in May 1864. Colonel Charles R. Thompson commanded the 2,000-man garrison there, and the 12th, 13th, and 100th United States Colored Troops regiments provided infantry support for the heavily fortified post. Early in November 1864, part of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s 3,500-man command occupied the west bank of the Tennessee River opposite Johnsonville. On November 4, after capturing two Federal vessels as a diversion, Confederate gunners opened fire on three Union gunboats, eleven transports, and eighteen barges. Assuming Forrest intended to attack the depot, Thompson ordered the vessels burned to prevent their capture. The fire spread to the docks and warehouses, and the Federal batteries could not destroy Forrest’s well-concealed gun emplacements. Forrest moved his forces south during the night as the blazing docks and warehouses illuminated the river, and an artillery detachment left behind continued shelling Johnsonville the next morning. By the time Federal reinforcements arrived, the Confederates were gone. The Confederates reported only eleven casualties and the Federals eight. Forrest estimated that the Confederates destroyed $6.7 million of war materiel, although Union estimates were much lower. The raid did not impede the flow of supplies for Federal operations, including William T. Sherman’s march to the sea and the victories over John Bell Hood’s army at Franklin and Nashville a few weeks later.