Forrest Seizes the Advantage

Colonel Cyrus Dunham held his position south of the cotton field for more than an hour, but when his infantry failed to take the Confederate artillery, he ordered a retreat about noon to a sixty-acre stand of timber bordered by a split-rail fence. As the Union line fell back, the 39th Iowa, the least experienced regiment in the Union force, panicked and rushed toward the fence, and Colonel Henry J.B. Cummings could not reform it. General Nathan Bedford Forrest answered with a general advance, sending his cavalry forward with small arms and artillery fire against the retreating soldiers. As the Union retreat shortened Dunham's line, Forrest extended his own line beyond the Union flanks, tightened the Confederate arc, and brought his artillery closer. He moved Captain Samuel L. Freeman's four-gun battery eastward so it could enfilade Dunham's line from near his right flank and fire across the whole position, with devastating effect. On the Union left, Forrest captured the federal guns and wagon train, while on the Union right he sent a detachment through the woods. By pushing his line beyond the Union position, Forrest aimed to get behind Dunham, pound the line with artillery, and gather up fleeing soldiers as they broke to the rear, a plan that nearly succeeded.

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee · United States