Forrest's Bivouac July 11, 1862

The brigade that camped near Mud Creek was led by a man who built his fortune in the slave trade. Nathan Bedford Forrest enlisted as a private in 1861, and after the dawn raid on Murfreesboro in July 1862, where the Union garrison and its commander, Brig. Gen. Thomas T. Crittenden, were taken, he was promoted to brigadier general. In April 1864 his troops killed Black and white Union soldiers as they tried to surrender at Fort Pillow, a massacre. After the war he became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

What the plaque says

Forrest's Bivouac July 11, 1862 Crossing Tennessee River on July 9, Forrest's brigade marched here in two columns, where he received reinforcements of four companies. His force bivouacked in this vicinity; the following morning it marched toward Murfreesboro, where the Federal garrison was attacked, its commander, Gen. T.T.Crittenden captured with about 1200 prisoners, plus a quantity of stores and munitions.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rock Island State Park — 5.5 mi
  A park where the Collins, Rocky and Caney Fork rivers meet at the head of Center Hill Lake, with a gorge of waterfalls below a 1917 dam and the remains of a cotton-mill town.
• Fall Creek Falls State Park — 19 mi
  A New Deal park on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, where Cane Creek has cut a gorge and a 256-foot waterfall drops into it.
• Savage Gulf State Park — 20 mi
  Roughly 19,000 acres of gorge and sandstone bluff on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, a state park of its own since 2022, with the Stone Door and a National Natural Landmark.
• Burgess Falls State Park — 22 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.

More markers nearby

• Clay Faulkner April 11, 1845-August 26, 1916 — 5.2 mi
• Joseph Terry — 5.2 mi
• Webb Hotel ca.1910 — 5.3 mi
• Great Falls HP-Spencer 46-kv Transmission Line — 5.4 mi