Civil War

This Week in the Civil War

00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.

This Week in the Civil War - #875

Texas Public Radio | By Texas Public Radio

Published July 16, 2014 at 3:49 PM CDT

For over a week Federal cavalry commanded by General Andrew Jackson Smith doggedly pursued Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate cavalry which actively harassed Sherman’s lengthening supply line. On Thursday, July 14, 1864 at Harrisburg, Mississippi the two forces clashed in a disjointed battle which ended by noon. Technically a Federal victory, Harrisburg was strategically insignificant, because on the next day Smith’s victorious Union force elected to pull back slowly toward Memphis, Tennessee, allowing Forrest’s Confederates the freedom to continue to roam free and attack Sherman’s supply lines. The stated reason for Smith’s retreat was an alleged shortage of supplies. Considering Early’s successful withdrawal from Washington, the Union War Department could not have been happy with Smith’s decision, after besting Forrest at Harrisburg, to retreat toward Memphis.