Jackson
Civil War Tennessee


American Civil War
December 19, 1862

The engagement at Jackson occurred during CSA Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Expedition into West Tennessee, between December 11, 1862, and January 1, 1863. Forrest wished to interrupt the rail supply line to Major General Ulysses S. Grant's army, campaigning down the Mississippi Central Railroad. If he could destroy the Mobile & Ohio Railroad running south from Columbus, Kentucky, through Jackson, Grant would have to curtail or halt his operations.

Forrest's 2,100-man cavalry brigade crossed the Tennessee River on December 15-17, heading west.  Major General Grant ordered a troop concentration at Jackson under Brigadier General Jeremiah C. Sullivan and sent a cavalry force out under Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, to confront Forrest. Forrest, however, smashed the Union cavalry at Lexington on December 18. As Forrest continued his advance the next day, Sullivan ordered Colonel Adolph Englemann to take a small force northeast of Jackson.

At Old Salem Cemetery, acting on the defensive, Englemann's two infantry regiments repulsed a Confederate mounted attack and then withdrew a mile closer to town. To Forrest, the fight amounted to no more than a feint and show of force intended to hold Jackson's Union defenders in place while two mounted columns destroyed railroad track north and south of the town and returned.  This accomplished, Forrest withdrew from the Jackson area to attack Trenton and Humboldt.

Thus, although the Federals had checked a demonstration by a portion of Forrest's force, a major accomplishment, other Confederates had fulfilled an element of the expedition's mission.

Result(s): Confederate victory

Location: Madison County

Campaign: Forrest's Expedition into West Tennessee (1862-63)

Date(s): December 19, 1862

Principal Commanders: Colonel Adolph Englemann [US]; Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest [CS]

Forces Engaged: Two regiments from the Jackson Garrison [US]; Detachment of Forrest's Cavalry (approx. 400) [CS]

Estimated Casualties: Total unknown (US 6; CS unknown)

Kindle Available

Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort And Staff
The CSA escort company and staff officers of Nathan Bedford Forrest were held in awe by men on both sides of the conflict during the war and long after, and they continue to be held in esteem as figures as legendary as Forrest himself. Not merely guards or couriers, these men were an elite force who rode harder and fought more fiercely than any others

Kindle Available
Tennessee in the Civil War
Tennessee in the Civil War

Selected Contemporary Accounts of Military and Other Events, Month by Month
Civil War: Uniforms, US and Confederate Armies, c.1895
Civil War: Uniforms, US and Confederate Armies
48 in. x 31.5 in. $169.99
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Framed


72 Piece Civil War Army Men
Play Set 52mm Union and Confederate Figures, Bridge, Horses, Canon
  • 48 Union and Confederate Soldiers up to 2-1/8 inches tall
  • 4 Horses, 4 Sandbag Bunkers, 6 Fence Sections, 3 Cannon, 3 Limber Wagons (Ammo Carts)
  • Bridge, Small Barracks, 2 Cardboard buildings
  • Scale: About 1/35th


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Lodge Logic Camp Dutch Oven
Large 8 quart cast iron oven. The legs are for ease of use in campfires. Flanged lid to place coals on top of oven. Great for stews, chilli, roasts (wild game) and complete recipes for everything including old-fashioned bread. A must for reenactors villages.
Tennessee American Civil War Book Titles
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Well researched, with detailed maps and photographs, this book allows you to follow General Forrest over his many engagements and march alongside the Army of Tennessee.
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War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville

by James Lee McDonough
By mid 1862, Union gains in the Mississippi Valley and in Tennessee and Kentucky had brought the Confederacy to a point of strategic crisis. This valuable addition to the growing literature on the Civil War in the West tells how the Union then failed to press home its advantage while the Confederacy failed to force Kentucky into the Confederacy. The climax of these events was the little-known Battle of Perryville, in which a greatly inferior Southern force under Braxton Bragg managed a draw against Don Carlos Buell's Union army but also effectively terminated the Confederate invasion of Kentucky. McDonough has researched thoroughly and written clearly, making this book informative and accessible to a wide range of Civil War students.
Cozzens follows up his magisterial account of the Battle of Chickamauga, This Terrible Sound (1992), with an equally authoritative study of the Chattanooga campaign that followed it. Braxton Bragg (who sometimes seems unfit to have been at large on the public streets, let alone commanding armies) failed to either destroy or starve out the Union Army of the Cumberland. In due course, superior Northern resources and strategy--not tactics; few generals on either side come out looking like good tacticians--progressively loosened the Confederate cordon around the city. Finally, the Union drove off Bragg's army entirely in the famous Battle of Missionary Ridge, which was a much more complex affair than previous, heroic accounts make it. Like its predecessor on Chickamauga, this is such a good book on Chattanooga that it's hard to believe any Civil War collection will need another book on the subject for at least a generation.
The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga

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Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.

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