Union forces on the Red River, having captured Louisiana’s Fort DeRussy, continue their campaign to expand their presence in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest initiates a cavalry raid into West Tennessee and Kentucky. The goal is to put Union forces on the offensive during the open days of the spring campaign season. On…
Isaac Gray Woolsey–physician, surgeon, and Baptist layman–has been serving as a quartermaster in the Confederate Army. Today, he resigns that position and begins organizing Company C, Eighth Tennessee Confederate cavalry. The regiment is soon assigned to Gen. N.B. Forrest’s division. As his obituary recounts: With his command he participated in all the battles in which…
While momentum has shifted to the Confederacy in the wake of the recent, successful repulsing of the Union offensive against the nation’s capital of Richmond, much of Tennessee remains under Union control. In response to the U.S. presence in Tennessee, Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest for several weeks has been conducting calvary raids in…