Battle of Brice ' s Crossroads The Battle of Brice ' s Crossroads was fought on June 10 , 1864 , near Baldwyn in Lee County , Mississippi , during the American Civil War . 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 . The battle remains a textbook example of an outnumbered force prevailing through better tactics , terrain mastery , and aggressive offensive action . Despite this , the Confederates gained little through the victory other than temporarily keeping the Union out of Alabama and Mississippi . Situation . Union Gen . William Tecumseh Sherman had long known that his fragile supply and communication lines through Tennessee were in serious jeopardy because of depredations by Forrest ' s cavalry raids . To effect a halt to Forrest ' s activities , he ordered Gen . Sturgis to conduct a penetration into northern Mississippi and Alabama with a force of around 8 , 500 troops to destroy Forrest and his command . Sturgis , after some doubts and trepidation , departed Memphis on June 1 . Gen . Stephen D . Lee , alerted of Sturgis ' s movement , warned Forrest . Lee had also planned a rendezvous at Okolona , Mississippi , with Forrest and his own troops but told Forrest to do as he saw fit . Already in transit to Tennessee , Forrest moved his cavalry ( less one division ) toward Sturgis , but remained unsure of Union intentions . Forrest soon surmised , correctly , that the Union had actually targeted Tupelo , Mississippi , located in Lee County , about south of Brice ' s Crossroads . Although badly outnumbered , he decided to repulse Sturgis instead of waiting for Lee , and selected an area to attack ahead on Sturgis ' s projected path . He chose Brice ' s Crossroads , in what is now Lee County , which featured four muddy roads , heavily wooded areas , and the natural boundary of Tishomingo Creek , which had only one bridge going east to west . Forrest , seeing that the Union cavalry moved three hours ahead of its own infantry , devised a plan that called for an attack on the Union cavalry first , with the idea of forcing the enemy infantry to hurry to assist them . Their infantry would be too tired to offer real help and the Confederates planned to push the entire Union force against the creek to the west . Forrest dispatched most of his men to two nearby towns to wait . Battle . At 9 : 45 a . m . on June 10 , a brigade of Benjamin H . Grierson ' s Union cavalry division reached Brice ' s Crossroads and the battle started at 10 : 30 a . m . when the Confederates performed a stalling operation with a brigade of their own . Forrest then ordered the rest of his cavalry to converge around the crossroads . The remainder of the Union cavalry arrived in support , but a strong Confederate assault soon pushed them back at 11 : 30 a . m . , when the balance of Forrest ' s cavalry arrived on the scene . Grierson called for infantry support and Sturgis obliged . The line held until 1 : 30 p . m . when the first regiments of Federal infantry arrived . The Union line , initially bolstered by the infantry , briefly seized the momentum and attacked the Confederate left flank , but Forrest launched an attack from his extreme right and left wings , before the rest of the federal infantry could take the field . In this phase of the battle , Forrest commanded his artillery to unlimber , unprotected , only yards from the Federal position , and to shell the Union line with grapeshot . The massive damage caused Sturgis to re - order the line in a tighter semicircle around the crossroads , facing east . At 3 : 30 , the Confederates in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry assaulted the bridge across the Tishomingo . Although the attack failed , it caused severe confusion among the Federal troops and Sturgis ordered a general retreat . With the Tennesseans still pressing , the retreat bottlenecked at the bridge and a panicked rout developed instead . The ensuing wild flight and pursuit back to Memphis carried across six counties before the exhausted Confederates retired . Aftermath . The Confederates suffered 492 casualties to the Union ' s 2 , 240 ( including 1 , 500 prisoners ) . Forrest captured huge supplies of arms , artillery , and ammunition as well as plenty of stores . Sturgis suffered demotion and exile to the far West . After the battle , the Union Army again accused Forrest of massacring black soldiers . The following is a list of artillery pieces captured by Forrest : Factors leading to the Union loss . In correspondence with General Sturgis , Colonel Alex Wilkin , commander of the 9th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment gave several reasons for the loss of the battle . He stated that General Sturgis , knowing that his men were under - supplied , having been on less than half rations , had been hesitant to advance on the enemy , but had done so against his better judgment because he had been ordered to do so . When the cavalry had engaged the enemy , many of the infantry had been ordered to advance double - time to support the cavalry , and in their weakened condition , many had fallen out in the advance . Those who did arrive were exhausted at the beginning of the battle , while the Confederates were fresh , and well fed owing to a large supply in their rear . The roads were also wet due to a recent rain storm , that slowed the advance of the supply wagons and ammunition train , and several men were employed to try to make the roads passable . Additionally , the horses pulling the trains were poorly fed because there was little in the way of forage for them to eat along the way . This accounted for Forrest ' s capture of the artillery and supplies . Intelligence had entirely favored the South , because the Confederates had been constantly fed information about the position and strength of the Union army from civilians in the area , while Sturgis had received no such intelligence . Because of this information , the South had been able meet the Union Army at a place where they could ambush Sturgis and make retreat as difficult as possible ( Tishomingo Creek was in their rear with only a single bridge as a crossing point . ) This place was close to the Confederate supply depot , and very far from the Union ' s . When the retreat had occurred , with food and supplies exhausted , many of the Union soldiers were unable to retreat with the rest because of fatigue . This was much of the reason why so many Union soldiers were captured during the battle . Finally , Wilkin stated that the rumors that Sturgis had been intoxicated during the battle were entirely false . Battlefield today . The battle is commemorated at Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site , established in 1929 . The National Park Service erected and maintains monuments and interpretive panels on a small plot at the crossroads . This is the spot where the Brice family house once stood . The Brice ' s Crossroads Museum is in Baldwyn , Mississippi , just over a mile from the battlefield . Brice ' s Crossroads is considered one of the most beautifully preserved battlefields of the Civil War . In 1994 concerned local citizens formed the Brice ' s Crossroads National Battlefield Commission , Inc . , to protect and preserve additional battlefield land . With assistance from the Civil War Trust ( formerly the APCWS and the Civil War Preservation Trust ) , and the support of Federal , State , and local governments , the BCNBC , Inc . has purchased for preservation over of the original battlefield . Much of the land purchased came from the Agnew Family in Tupelo who still owns some of the battlefield property . The modern Bethany Presbyterian Church sits on the southeast side of the crossroads . At the time of the battle this congregation ' s meeting house was located further south along the Baldwyn Road . However , the Bethany Cemetery adjacent to the Park Service monument site predates the Civil War . Many of the area ' s earliest settlers are buried here . The graves of more than 90 Confederate soldiers killed in the battle are also located in this cemetery . Union dead from the battle were buried in common graves on the battlefield , but were later reinterred in the National Cemetery at Memphis , Tennessee . The roads that form Brice ' s Crossroads lead to Baldwyn , Tupelo , Ripley , and Pontotoc , Mississippi . Tupelo is the county seat for historic Lee County , Mississippi . The roads , paved today , are still a major route into Lee , Prentiss , and Union counties , with thousands of cars traveling through the national battlefield to reach other destinations .