In an effort to check the Union army's advance through Georgia, Maj. Gen.
Nathan Bedford Forrest led a 23-day raid culminating in an attack on the
Yankee supply base at Johnsonville, Tennessee. Swinging north from Corinth,
Mississippi, toward the Kentucky border and temporarily blockading the
Tennessee River at Fort Herman, Forrest then moved southward along the
Tennessee River's west bank, capturing several U.S. steamers and a gunboat
which he later had to abandon. On November 4, Forrest began positioning his
artillery across the river from the Federal supply base and landing at
Johnsonville. The Union discovered the Confederates finishing their
entrenchments and battery emplacements in the afternoon of the 4th. The Union
gunboats and land batteries, across the river, engaged the Confederates in an
artillery duel. The Rebel guns, however, were so well-positioned, the Federals
were unable to hinder them. In fact, Confederate artillery fire disabled the
gunboats. Fearing that the Rebels might cross the river and capture the
transports, the Federals set fire to them. The wind then extended the fire to
the piles of stores on the levee and to a warehouse loaded with supplies.
Seeing the fire, the Confederates began firing on the steamboats, barges, and
warehouses to prevent the Federals from putting out the fire. An inferno
illuminated Forrest's night withdrawal, and he escaped Union clutches without
serious loss. Damages totaled $2.2 million. The next morning, on the 5th, some
Confederate artillery bombarded the depot in the morning but then left.
Although this brilliant victory further strengthened Forrest's reputation and
destroyed a great amount of Union materiel, it failed to stem the tide of
Union success in Georgia. By this time, Forrest often harassed the Union Army,
but, as this engagement demonstrated, he could not stop their operations.