Battle of Thompson's Station, March 5, 1863

Colonel John Coburn's brigade left Franklin in March 1863 to scout toward Columbia and came back as prisoners. It was a lull after Stones River, and Coburn first repelled a small Confederate force. Then Earl Van Dorn's cavalry attacked his hilltop in front while another division rode around his left flank, took his wagon train and cut the Nashville road behind him. Out of ammunition, Coburn surrendered with all but two of his field officers. The 19th Michigan and 33rd Indiana alone lost 962 men, most of them captured, and Union influence in Middle Tennessee faded for a while.

What the plaque says

Battle of Thompson's Station March 5, 1863 In the spring of 1863 the Federal Army operating out of Nashville made several foraging expeditions into this area collecting food and hay. At this site, General Earl Van Dorn's Confederate Cavalry Corps defeated a Federal task force under Col. John Coburn; he along with 1220 officers and men were captured. The outcome was decided by Forrest's Brigade which overran the Federal left several hundred yards northeast in a flank attack. In this action Forrest's famous horse "Roderick" was killed.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — 7.5 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• The Mink Slide and East 8th Street — 15 mi
  Columbia's Black business and church district south of the courthouse square, where on the night of February 25, 1946 a white mob gathered and Black veterans stood guard.
• James K. Polk Home and Museum — 15 mi
  The 1816 brick house in Columbia where Polk practiced law and campaigned for the legislature, now a museum that also tells of the people the Polk family enslaved.
• Henry Horton State Park — 19 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.

More markers nearby

• Star Pointer — 2.4 mi
• William Banks Caperton — 3.6 mi
• Ewell Farm — 3.8 mi
• Confederate Attacks at Spring Hill — 4.5 mi