Salem Cemetery

Near Jackson Tennessee is the small battle of Salem Cemetery. This fight was part of Forrest's December 1862 campaign in western Tennessee. This riad caused a lot of grief to rail lines and coming at the same time as the Holly Springs raid by Van Dorn was part of the reason Grant abandoned his overland campaign for Vicksburg. Van Dorn crushed the supply depot at holly Springs and Forrest's work made sure that it couldn't be quickly rebuilt.

The battle of Salem Cemetery was a minor battle of Forrest's raid. Parker's Crossroads was a much more important battle of the raid, in fact I'd wager that it was the only battle of the raid that was important to the success of the raid.

So here is a tour of this small battle field.

This is the Tennessee state historical society marker near the cemetery.

In the cemetery is this map, as well as some other signage I have not included pictures of.

While the small sign in the pciture says "tour stop 3" I made it our first stop as it is where the Confederates started the battle from. This view would be from the Union vantage point. On the map it would be somewhere in the tail of the big red arrow, closer to the end of it than the tip.

A bit back up the road, near the tree graphic on the map, is where this monument is. Behind the tall trees in the center of the photo is where the cemetery is.
A better view of the monument from the above picture.

Salem Cemetery.
The Confederate monument
The Union monument

And a view of the cemetery, with the littlest sculptures I've ever seen. I laughed the first time I saw them. They look nice but they are just so small they seem out of place.