This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, July 8: Nathan Bedford Forrest Attacks.
This week 150 years ago in the Civil War saw Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedfort Forrest capture a Union garrison at Murfreesboro, Tenn., after a surprise attack by his cavalry. Forrest and his fighters staged a dramatic offensive against some 900 Union troops that July 13, 1862, and forced the surrender of the federal garrison. At the time, Murfreesboro was a key Union supply point on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. Before dawn on that date, Forrest's riders surprised Union pickets and then overran a Union hospital before more rebel troops attacked other Union camps around Murfreesboro. Forrest's daring not only led to the destruction of railroad tracks and supplies but also stopped Union forces intent on driving on to Chattanooga. All told more than 1,000 casualties were reported. Forrest would not be able to hang onto the town for long, but his raid was the first of many bold strikes into Union-held territory that would make him one of the famous fighters of the war. The Associated Press was one of the first with news of Forrest's exploit on July 15, 1862. One Northern newspaper reported then that "A special dispatch to the Associated Press says that Murfreesborough has been taken by the confederates, who are mostly Texan Rangers under Colonel Forrest, but was afterwards shelled by our battery." The dispatch reported two ranking Union officers were among those taken prisoner when the federal garrison fell. An AP dispatch a day later reported that rebels afterward spirited away captured officers but released privates in the ranks. "The citizens are taking good care of the wounded, and have buried the dead left by the rebels," AP added.
This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, July 15: CSS Arkansas runs past Vicksburg.
The CSS Arkansas, a famed Confederate ironclad of the Mississippi River, runs a gauntlet of U.S. Navy warships with its guns blazing on July 15, 1862, near Vicksburg, Miss. The ironclad, one of two authorized by the Confederate Congress a year earlier, would make it through only 23 days of sporadic river fighting before meeting its end. Built at Memphis, the CSS Arkansas steamed down toward the federal warships with its weapons firing. The CSS Arkansas heavily damaged two of the first Union ships it encountered.The ironclad then ran past 16 other Union vessels, damaging them, on its route to Vicksburg - despite receiving heavy damage itself. David Farragut, a celebrated Union commander, was so angered by the Arkansas' damaging run that he sought to destroy the ironclad soon afterward at Vicksburg. But the Arkansas avoided further damage and would go on to more river skirmishing with two other Union ships later in the month before being scuttled. The ship headed south to Louisiana in early August 1862 to deliver firepower to Confederate military actions there. However, damage to a propeller forced it aground and the crew had to blow the ironclad up before federal forces could arrive. Elswhere, The Associated Press reports on July 16, 1862, from Louisville, Ky., that the border state is rife with Confederate guerrilla activity this month 150 years ago in the Civil War. One band of rebels operating in the farming countryside has "cut the telegraph wire and tore up the railroad, and took everything convertible to his use." The AP dispatch adds that supporters of the Union side in Kentucky are alarmed, particularly in Lexington. It locals were setting up defenses and "the people say they have ample force to protect the town, but not to take the offensive."