Parker's Crossroads

Parker's Crossroads is one of my favorite battlefields to visit because it seems like every time I'm there they have added something since my last visit. On my first visit there was just a few signs and I think one cannon. Since then they've added trails, more cannon, more signs, a monument and lots more land. One bad aspect of the park is that I-40 (the highway between Memphis and Nashville) cuts right through the middle but since this is the crossroads even that doesn't seem out of place.

While it may be apocryphal this is the battle where Forrest reportedly said "Charge 'em both ways" Forrest's men approached the crossroads from the north west. As they got near the crossroads they ran into Cyrus L. Dunham's Union brigade. These men they forced back until they sought refuge behind a rail fence. Forrest was in the process of finishing off the capture of this force when John w. Fuller's Union brigade appeared from the north in his rear. If they had acted forcefully they might have turned the tables on Forrest in a huge way. Instead they acted timid and Forrest attacked them as well. He then escaped to the south.


Forrest's men advance down this road, we are looking at it from the Union position.

Behind the previous stop is this field where some early fighting took place.

This cannon points south. The interstate is before the tree line, you can see some signs and larger vehicles there. Dunham's position along the fence is in the right third of the picture across the interstate.

Part of the reason Dunham surrendered is that his wagon train had been captured earlier in the day. On this map our location is the black circle on the road at the bottom of the map. You can see Dunham's position to the north and see how he was being encircled.

And the view from the last sign. The wagons were actually captured in the creek bed in the distance, not where the sign is.

Now we've circled around to the fence line Dunham's men fell back too. As this map shows they were pretty well surrounded by this point.

Here a worker clears some brush as the tree line had been cut back. Since I took this picture I've been back and trails had also been added in this area.

On the other side of the fence is a bunch of small markers for various Union units that defended this fence, as well as a marker for Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Alonzo Napier who was killed here. As you can see the trees used to be much fuller.

You can see how close to the highway these markers are. On the left side is a semi exiting the picture.

The Union troops that fell here were buried on the right of their line on a small knoll.

And this marker has the list of the men who died here. If there were all buried here we do not know but grave sites have been found so at least a significant portion of this list was buried here.

A recent Confederate monument for Forrest's artillery. I've seen this same group place markers on Winstead Hill near Franklin and at Brice's Crossroads.

At the visitor's center they have a huge diorama of the battle. My camera got a ton of glare but some pictures did turn out okay.

Forrest's December 1862 West Tennessee Raid

In December 1862 Nathan Bedford Forrest led a raid into West Tennessee. The goal was to wreck havoc on the Union supply lines. At this same time Earl Van Dorn led a raid into Holly Springs, Mississippi. The two events convinced Grant to abandon his overland campaign for Vicksburg. He would start shifting his army back to Memphis and would make the campaign along the river. This was not the only thing that convinced Grant to move to the river but these two raids did factor into Grant's decision.

On December 15th Forrest crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton. For the next three weeks he would run around West Tennessee causing as much destruction as possible and getting into a few battles, Parker's Crossroads being the most memorable.

So on one of my trips I decided to follow Forrest's campaign as best I could. I have previously blogged about the December 19th fight at Salem Cemetery.

This map is at Parker's Crossroads and shows the entire area Forrest operated, but it also nicely shows the railroads and towns of West Tennessee.

This sign is not in Clifton but is on a highway near Clifton. I took the picture from the car as there was too much traffic and not enough space to pull over and do it right. Clifton is where Forrest crossed the Tennessee River to begin the campaign on December 15th, and also where he crossed at the end on January 2nd.

After the fight at Salem Cemetery near Jackson on December 19th Forrest was next at Humboldt, and then moved north to Trenton.

The next day they were at Rutherford's Station on their way to Union City (near the northwest corner of the state). There was railroad track running in this area, Union City to Jackson, which is why Forrest was here.

From Rutherford Station it was on to Kenton next as they continued to tear up the railroad.

Finally they reached Union City, this sign is south of the city. Now was the time to turn around and get away. Of course they would continue to destroy supplies and railroads but Union City was as far north as they went.

Instead of just retyping the list of what Forrest destroyed during his raid I thought I'd just show the marker at Parker's Crossroads that details it. I think the biggest accomplishments are the second, third and fourth things on the list; burning the depot at Humboldt, destroying over 100 miles of railroad as well as numerous bridges and trestles. This loss meant Grant could not rebuild the Holly Springs depot that Van Dorn destroyed at about the same time. That fact forced Grant to move to the Mississippi River so he would have a secure line of supplies.

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.