N. B. Forrest's Raid on Murfreesboro

Murfreesboro was strategically important to both the Confederacy and the Union during the Civil War because it lay along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and connected routes to Alabama and Mississippi. After Federal troops took Nashville in February 1862, Murfreesboro became a key Union supply base by July, defended by 750 Federal infantry, 120 cavalry, and one artillery unit in three camps, including Oaklands. With Union forces within 35 miles of Chattanooga and dependent on the Nashville and Chattanooga line for supplies, Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest concluded that seizing Murfreesboro would seriously hinder Union efforts to take Chattanooga. From McMinnville, Forrest led about 1,400 men on an overnight ride and entered Murfreesboro before dawn on July 13, 1862. One division attacked the Union camps at Oaklands while Forrest and the other captured the courthouse and city jail and freed many civilian prisoners. At Oaklands, surprised Union troops recovered and resisted strongly through the morning, and Colonel W.W. Duffield was seriously wounded. Around noon Forrest renewed the attack there, forced the 9th Michigan to yield, and sent a demand for the unconditional surrender of Duffield’s command, which was accepted about 1 p.m. Forrest then pressed the 3rd Minnesota Infantry to surrender as well, and Colonel Henry C. Lester, after conferring with Duffield and being shown what appeared to be a larger Confederate force, surrendered around 3 p.m. The fighting caused relatively few casualties, and the remaining Union soldiers were taken prisoner for a short time. Forrest was promoted to brigadier general on July 21, 1862, eight days after the raid. Union forces soon reoccupied Murfreesboro and held it until September; the Confederates then held the city until their retreat after the Battle of Stones River in early January 1863, after which Murfreesboro remained under Federal control for the rest of the war.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee · United States