June 10, 1864---The Battle of Brice's Crossroads

JUNE 10, 1864:           

The Battle of Brice’s Crossroads:      

Far away from Virginia, General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A. and General William Tecumseh Sherman U.S.A. are continuing their armed debate over the ownership of Atlanta. While the Atlanta Campaign has not been a cakewalk for either side, it has not been another Overland Campaign. Where Lee is brash, Johnston is cautious. Where Grant is forthright and grasps the nettle, Sherman is crafty and backs his opponent into a briar patch. Thus, the Atlanta Campaign has had a few large battles, but it mostly consists of maneuvers which are pushing Johnston back toward Atlanta. But Sherman has a problem far in his rear. In Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A. and his free-ranging cavalry command (his “critter companies”) have been raiding Union supply depots, cutting telegraph wires, and disrupting Sherman’s rail connections. Today, Sherman orders 8,000 Union troops led by General Samuel Sturgis and General Benjamin Grierson to punish Forrest. Forrest’s force numbers less than 5,000. The two small armies meet at Brice’s Crossroads not far from Tupelo, Mississippi. The battle, which begins at 9:45 A.M. ends in a Union rout by 4:00 P.M.  The Union loses 2,240 men (1,500 captured), while the Confederates lose 492 overall. Forrest also seizes a desperately-needed cornucopia of Union supplies including heavy ordnance: a 3-inch rifled steel gun, three 6-pounder rifled bronze guns, two 4-inch rifled bronze guns, five 6-pounders, two 12-pounders, and three 12-pounder Napoleon guns, along with ammunition, powder, food stocks, small firearms and bullets, and horses. Forrest is jubilant. Sturgis gets busted to Colonel and is sent to a quiet frontier post where he fades into obscurity. 

The Battle of Cold Harbor  (Day Eleven):        

Having finalized his strategy for the next step of the Overland Campaign, Grant has dispatched troops to cut the railways, link up with Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley, and link up with “Beast” Butler, still encamped at The Bermuda Hundred. It is Grant’s plan to bypass Richmond and fall upon Petersburg. Grant calculates that if he can seize Petersburg, the gateway and supply depot to Richmond, he can force an end to the war by month’s end. At first, his plan goes flawlessly. Robert E. Lee is not even aware that units of The Army of The Potomac are on the move.