Details
FORREST, NATHAN BEDFORD, General, C.S.A.. Letter signed ("N.B. Forrest, Maj. Genl.") to Col. A.P. Mason, "Hdqrs Forrests Cav'y Corps, Near Columbia" [Tennessee], 21 November 1864. 2 pages, 8vo, on lined paper
PRELUDE TO THE BATTLE OF SPRING HILL: FORREST AND THE NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN
A terse report from Forrest, in command of three divisions. His army had marched from Florence Alabama on the l9th northwards towards Nashville, Tennessee. "On yesterday morning the enemy came up opposite to Columbia & began shelling the town. I sent down a flag of truce & asked an interview with the Comd'g Genl. When Genl. [Edward] Hatch came down to the river & I told him that we had no forces in the town excepting a skirmish line, that his fire was endangering his own wounded who are in the town, & that if he did not cease [fire] I should place their wounded directly under it. After this the firing ceased. The enemy are not encamped in the hills this side of Rutherford creek.
"I also proposed to Genl. Hatch to exchange the prisoners now in our hands, to which he replied that the Infantry was just in rear of him & that as soon as it came up he would give me an answer. This was about one o'clock PM, about dark a flag [of truce] came in with the reply that [as] the prisoners had all been sent back from Nashville the exchange could not be made. I am inclined to think that there is no infantry in my front & that the infantry did not come further than Spring Hill...."
In sharp skirmishes, Forrest's force advanced beyond Columbia to Spring Hill, where on 29 November the Confederates outflanked the well-entrenched Union line, which narrowly escaped being surrounded and cut off. For an account of this campaign, see J.A. Wyeth. That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Baton Rouge, l989, Chapter 20 "The Nashville Campaign."
PRELUDE TO THE BATTLE OF SPRING HILL: FORREST AND THE NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN
A terse report from Forrest, in command of three divisions. His army had marched from Florence Alabama on the l9th northwards towards Nashville, Tennessee. "On yesterday morning the enemy came up opposite to Columbia & began shelling the town. I sent down a flag of truce & asked an interview with the Comd'g Genl. When Genl. [Edward] Hatch came down to the river & I told him that we had no forces in the town excepting a skirmish line, that his fire was endangering his own wounded who are in the town, & that if he did not cease [fire] I should place their wounded directly under it. After this the firing ceased. The enemy are not encamped in the hills this side of Rutherford creek.
"I also proposed to Genl. Hatch to exchange the prisoners now in our hands, to which he replied that the Infantry was just in rear of him & that as soon as it came up he would give me an answer. This was about one o'clock PM, about dark a flag [of truce] came in with the reply that [as] the prisoners had all been sent back from Nashville the exchange could not be made. I am inclined to think that there is no infantry in my front & that the infantry did not come further than Spring Hill...."
In sharp skirmishes, Forrest's force advanced beyond Columbia to Spring Hill, where on 29 November the Confederates outflanked the well-entrenched Union line, which narrowly escaped being surrounded and cut off. For an account of this campaign, see J.A. Wyeth. That Devil Forrest: Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Baton Rouge, l989, Chapter 20 "The Nashville Campaign."