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| Nathan Bedford Forrest |
Confederate
Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest led a raid on the Ohio River in March,
which included the Battle of Paducah on March 25th 1864.
Confederate
Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest headed into Tennessee and Kentucky with
about 3,000 men. The object of this raid
was to disrupt Union troops in the area, resupply and recruit. They reached Paducah, Kentucky on March 25th
1864 and occupied the town. Union troops
in the town under the command of Colonel Stephen G Hicks, numbering around 650
men withdrew into Fort Anderson on the west side of Paducah. Forrest tried to get the Union men to
surrender, telling them "... if I have to storm your works, you may expect
no quarter." But with support of
two gunboats on the Ohio River, Hicks would not surrender.
With Hicks
men bottled up in the Fort, the Confederates rounded up horse and mules, and
loaded Union Army supplies into wagons, destroying anything they couldn't take. Some of Forrest’s men decided to attack the
Fort, but they were repulsed with heavy casualties.
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