Forrest's Artillery Positions -Aug. 21, 1964-

Forrest's raid on Memphis on August 21, 1864, was meant to seize three Union generals, free Confederate prisoners from the Irving Block Prison and force Union troops out of northern Mississippi. About 2,000 cavalry rode in at dawn under fog, posing as a Union patrol. The generals escaped, and Union troops held the main force for two hours at the State Female College, so the prison was never reached. Forrest left with about 500 prisoners, horses and supplies. The raid did pull Federal units back to defend Memphis. It came four months after Fort Pillow.

What the plaque says

Forrest's Artillery Positions -Aug. 21, 1964- In this locality, the highest in Memphis, a section (2 guns) of Forrest's artillery was emplaced under Lt. Sale, supporting his raid on Memphis. Fire was directed against Federals in buildings of the State Female College about 700 yards NE, until it was learned that women and children were also in the buildings.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stax Museum of American Soul Music — 0.4 mi
  A rebuilt Stax studio on the site of the old Capitol Theatre, with a replica of the sloped-floor Studio A, Isaac Hayes's Cadillac and the story of an integrated soul label.
• Elmwood Cemetery — 0.9 mi
  Memphis's oldest active cemetery, a rural garden cemetery of about 1,500 trees opened in 1852, with Black civic leaders, yellow fever victims and the city's whole history in its lots.
• Sun Studio — 1.9 mi
  The small Union Avenue room where Sam Phillips recorded Rocket 88, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley and the Million Dollar Quartet, now a National Historic Landmark.
• 1866 Memphis Massacre Marker at Army Park — 1.9 mi
  A privately funded NAACP marker in a small downtown park, placed in 2016, that names the May 1866 attack on Black South Memphis as a massacre.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Joseph Edison Walker — 0.3 mi
• Stax Recording Studios — 0.3 mi
• Archbishop James P. Lyke — 0.4 mi
• Willie Mitchell's Royal Studios — 0.5 mi