October 11, 1863---Deus ex Machina

OCTOBER 11, 1863:            

The Battle of Collierville, Tennessee. Confederate cavalry under General Nathan Bedford Forrest attack the Union garrison at Collierville in an attempt to cut the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. As the battle is going on, a Union military train carrying General William Tecumseh Sherman, tons of supplies, and several brigades of troopers arrives unexpectedly in Collierville. Sherman’s men go immediately into action, hammering the Southern cavalry which withdraws. Although the Graybacks have wrecked Collierville and damaged Sherman’s train, the town and depot remain in Union hands. Realizing that the rail line was saved only by a deus ex machina, General Sherman decides that the southern railways are too vulnerable to attack to be dependable, and that the army must live off the land if it intends to operate deep in enemy territory. Collierville is the lesson that leads to Sherman’s March to the Sea.