Nashville Battle of Brentwood, March 25, 1863

DixieRifles

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Brentwood is an expensive sub-division of Nashville. I did not know about any battle there even though this area was occupied and changed hands many times during the war. I would like to know more. Since the Wikipedia article is short, I just copied it. Would like to know more about it and further resources.
What units did Forrest have there?
What were the casualty and prisoner count?

The Battle of Brentwood was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on March 25, 1863, in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Union Lt. Col. Edward Bloodgood held Brentwood, a station on the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, with 400 men on the morning of March 25, 1863, when Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, with a powerful column, approached the town. The day before, Forrest had ordered Col. J. W. Starnes, commanding the 2nd Brigade, to go to Brentwood, cut the telegraph, tear up railroad track, attack the stockade, and cut off any retreat.
Forrest and the other cavalry brigade joined Bloodgood about 7:00 am on March 25. A messenger from the stockade informed Bloodgood that Forrest's men were about to attack, and had destroyed the railroad tracks. Bloodgood sought to notify his superiors and discovered that the telegraph lines were cut. Forrest sent in a demand for a surrender under a flag of truce, but Bloodgood refused. Within a half-hour, though, Forrest had artillery in place to shell Bloodgood's position and had surrounded the Federals with a large force. Bloodgood decided to surrender.
Forrest and his men caused considerable damage in the area during this expedition, and Brentwood, Tennessee, on the railroad, was a significant loss to the Federals.

UNITS
22nd Wisconsin Infantry
33rd Indiana Infantry Regiment
19th Michigan Infantry
1st Division, 1st Cavalry Corps

Forrest's Cavalry Division
 
Isn't this where one of Forrest's favorite horses (Roderick) was killed, buried and remains there still in a subdivision called Roderick Place?
 
Brentwood is an expensive sub-division of Nashville. I did not know about any battle there even though this area was occupied and changed hands many times during the war. I would like to know more. Since the Wikipedia article is short, I just copied it. Would like to know more about it and further resources.
What units did Forrest have there?
What were the casualty and prisoner count?

The Battle of Brentwood was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on March 25, 1863, in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Union Lt. Col. Edward Bloodgood held Brentwood, a station on the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, with 400 men on the morning of March 25, 1863, when Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, with a powerful column, approached the town. The day before, Forrest had ordered Col. J. W. Starnes, commanding the 2nd Brigade, to go to Brentwood, cut the telegraph, tear up railroad track, attack the stockade, and cut off any retreat.
Forrest and the other cavalry brigade joined Bloodgood about 7:00 am on March 25. A messenger from the stockade informed Bloodgood that Forrest's men were about to attack, and had destroyed the railroad tracks. Bloodgood sought to notify his superiors and discovered that the telegraph lines were cut. Forrest sent in a demand for a surrender under a flag of truce, but Bloodgood refused. Within a half-hour, though, Forrest had artillery in place to shell Bloodgood's position and had surrounded the Federals with a large force. Bloodgood decided to surrender.
Forrest and his men caused considerable damage in the area during this expedition, and Brentwood, Tennessee, on the railroad, was a significant loss to the Federals.

UNITS
22nd Wisconsin Infantry
33rd Indiana Infantry Regiment
19th Michigan Infantry
1st Division, 1st Cavalry Corps

Forrest's Cavalry Division
I would check Jordan and Pryor's book, written with Forrest hovering in the background as their unofficial editor.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-...0001&campid=5338579798&icep_item=163607180470
 
From: The Union Army: Cyclopedia of Battles (google book)

Do the math. A Union detachment of 300 is captured yet their report stated only 40 prisoners.

Brentwood1.JPG
 
Isn't this where one of Forrest's favorite horses (Roderick) was killed, buried and remains there still in a subdivision called Roderick Place?

Close. Roderick was killed during the Battle of Thompson’s Station on March 5, 1863. Thompson’s Station was the next town on the RR south of Franklin and Brentwood was the next town north of Franklin.
 
General John Scales’ book, The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, has a nice summary of the battle, including operational maps overlaid on present day maps and directions for locating and visiting the battle sites. Pages 127-134. He also reminds us of the spat between Forrest and Van Dorn over captured arms. Forrest routinely supplied his troops with captured arms, equipment and supplies and the Brentwood raid was no exception. Van Dorn insisted that captured items were to be turned over to the quartermaster. Forrest refused. Heated words were exchanged, other simmering grievances boiled over and it escalated to the point that both generals drew their swords. An intercession by one of his staff officers induced Van Dorn to back down.
 
I would check Jordan and Pryor's book

I pulled my hardback copy of "First with the Most", which has 4 or 5 pages on the campaign in this area.
The Confederates were re-forming with the arrival of General Van Dorn. After describing some changes to his command and a mutiny among some officers, it goes into describing some of the actions before Brentwood. It mentions the names of several companies but I can't tell how they were incorporated into this organization. It also mentions the 3rd Arkansas Cavalry but that could have been in another brigade.
At first it describes Forrest as commanding only a cavalry brigade.
This units mentioned as being under Forrest's command are:
Starne's 4th Tennessee Cavalry
Edmondson's 11th Tennessee Cavalry
Biffle's 9th Tennessee Cavalry
Cox's 10th Tennessee Cavalry

In a previous engagement, it says they captured 1,221 Union prisoners at Thompson's Station. Then it says that Forrest commanded a newly formed cavalry division. At Brentwood, Forrest called a truce to discuss surrender of Colonel Bloodgood. After a flash of some artillery pieces, Bloodgood changed his mind and surrendered---I presume all of ~500 Wisconsin troops and ~300 Michigan troops.
It then mentions the 1st Tennessee Cavalry was placed to watch approaches from Nashville but no other description of any specific unit---just a motley crew of 700 soldiers he had rounded up for a counter-charge.
 
I was going through FOLD3 and found a little gem.
There is a category of Confederate Casualties by State. It included a Casualty List of a portion of Forrest Cavalry for the Battle of Brentwood. The list was broken down by regiment but it was hard to read--- looks like "11th" changed to "14th". It also had a unit that was labeled something like "Stragglers from other??? unit".
It was only 1 long sheet (2 scanned pages) containing 59 names. The only officer who was KIA was Lt. A Nesbit but I can't find a service record on him.

Here are the units that I could make out and the totals.

1st Division, 1st (Forrest's) Cavalry Corps
4th Mississippi cavalry
11th?? Tennessee Cav
Stragglers attached to brigade??
Edmondson Regiment
9th Tennessee Cavalry

Total
1st Brigade 0 KIA 5 WIA 11 MIA
2nd Brigade 4 KIA 11 WIA 28 MIA


Casualty list.JPG
 
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