"The General Demands An Unconditional Surrender"

During a battle in which Confederate troops drove Union forces through the woods with heavy casualties and white flags appeared near a split-rail fence, one of General Nathan Bedford Forrest's aides approached Colonel Cyrus L. Dunham under a flag of truce and said Forrest understood that Dunham had surrendered. Dunham denied any thought of surrender and rejected Forrest's later demand for an unconditional surrender, replying that he never surrendered and that Forrest could come and try to take him. The Union force was divided, and Dunham, at the south end of the position, had no way of knowing what was happening near the north end, where several Confederates reported white flags and recalled that surrender was being discussed and terms arranged as soldiers of both armies mingled. The battle appeared decided and the Union surrender seemed assured until Forrest learned that a Union force under Colonel John Fuller and his Ohio Brigade had arrived and was attacking his rear line behind the Parker house, suddenly shifting the advantage to the Federals. Dunham's refusal to surrender, despite his seemingly hopeless position, may have been influenced in part by severe criticism of his surrender at Munfordville, Kentucky, less than four months earlier.

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee · United States