Brice's Crossroads

[Dave G]

The Battle of Brice's Crossroads was fought on June 10, 1864, near Baldwyn, Mississippi. It pitted a 4,787-man contingent led by Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest against an 8,100-strong Union force led by Brigadier General Samuel D. Sturgis. The battle ended in a rout of the Union forces and cemented Forrest's reputation as one of the great cavalrymen. (Wikipedia)

A main feature of the battle was a narrow bridge over Tishomingo Creek. The Federals made the mistake of bringing their wagon train across the bridge and were in such a hurry to retreat, they lost most of it.

I saw this battlefield in April 2012. There's a long tour starting at Baldwyn Visitor Centre, but it was not open, so I tramped around whatever interested me. The Civil War Trust has added a lot of parkland to the 1 acre NPS corner and have put up signage along several trails.

Photos: The NPS Acre, reconstructed replica of the narrow bridge over Tishomingo Creek, Tishomingo Creek with the modern bridge in the distance, panorama with new bridge on the left and replica bridge in the park to the right

 

[diane]

Welcome, DaveG! Thanks for a good post on Forrest's finest battle, great pics. Sturgis was chewed up and spit out - never to be the same again! I like to call it the Forrest Effect... Come visit us on the Forrest forum - I'm one of the hosts.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Great Photos !
I really need to get back up there sometime.

Diane beat me to it, but we have a lot of info about Brice's Crossroads in the Forrest forum.

Two of my favorite threads:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/brices-crossroads-serves-as-forrests-masterpiece.100468/

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/brices-crossroads-a-diary.24193/#post-302277

 

[Dave G]

I uploaded a number of the historical markers with photos for this battle to hmdb.org. The markers for Baldwyn are here: http://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Town=Baldwyn&State=Mississippi

 

[kepi]

This is worth reading if you haven't seen it before.

https://mississippiconfederates.wor...ers-story-of-the-battle-of-brices-crossroads/

 

[Deleted User CS]

In my humble opinion, Ed Bearss wrote the best book about this battle which is titled " Forrest at Brice's Cross Roads." This book was originally republished by Morningside Books of Dayton, Ohio in 1987 and 1991. Unfortunately, Morningside is no longer in business and I think their publications were bought by Broadfoot Publishing of North Carolina. Anyway, several of the maps in this book which demonstrate the various phases of the battle are in color and the footnotes and bibliography are absolutely tremendous. Incidently, I have several original letters from this battle among the gigantic collection of gathered primary source materials in my personal civil war archives.

 

[DixieRifles]

I saw this battlefield in April 2012. There's a long tour starting at Baldwyn Visitor Centre, but it was not open, so I tramped around whatever interested me. The Civil War Trust has added a lot of parkland to the 1 acre NPS corner and have put up signage along several trails.

I went there for the 150th Anniversary. I didn't even go to the re-enactment---I just tramped around a lot. They had several booths set-up by Park Rangers which was a big help. They have expanded it a lot from the old, old days when I saw it.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I uploaded a number of the historical markers with photos for this battle to hmdb.org. The markers for Baldwyn are here: http://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Town=Baldwyn&State=Mississippi

@Dave G , thanks for those photos.

As I've said, it's been a few years since I've been to Brice's Crossroads.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the additions/improvements courtesy of Civil War Trust.

 

[nitrofd]

If it wasn't for for Forrest we wouldn't have the bike rally in Sturgis, S.D.