During Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry raid through West Tennessee from Dec. 15, 1962-Jan 3, 1863, his force destroyed railroads, severed Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's supply line between Columbus, Kentucky, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton, defeated Union Col. Robert G. Ingersoll's cavalry at Lexington, captured Trenton and Union City, ranged briefly into Kentucky, evaded defeat at Parker's Cross Roads, and crossed the river again at Clifton, leading Grant to change his supply base to Memphis. Alarmed by Forrest's early success in counties to the east, Union Col. Adolph Engelmann stationed his brigade on both sides of Cotton Grove Road to slow him. On the morning of December 19, 1862, as Forrest's cavalry rode south toward Jackson, Federal soldiers fired a deadly volley that killed or wounded several men and horses. Forrest's cavalrymen retreated to the next ridge north, leaving four dismounted troopers behind using their dead horses for cover until capture, while the Federals regrouped behind the cemetery's iron and wood fence and repelled a brisk cavalry charge. Forrest then unlimbered three guns and shelled the Federal position, but most rounds passed over the prone Federals and exploded in the treetops. As the Confederate gunners began to find their range, Engelmann, warned that his outnumbered troops were in danger of being flanked, withdrew toward Jackson. Forrest then confined the Federals to their fortifications there, freeing him to continue raids against Union rail and communication lines in West Tennessee. During the four-hour battle, Confederate losses were 65 killed, wounded, or missing, and Federal losses were 2 killed and 6 wounded. Except for the paving of Cotton Grove Road, the natural features around the cemetery, established 1825, remain unchanged.