United States Colored Troops 61st Infantry (Union)

Moscow

Moscow was the site of a skirmish during the Civil War on December 4, 1863. Confederate cavalry under the command of Gen. Stephen D. Lee attempted to burn the railroad bridge over the Wolf River, in order to aid Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest in returning to Tennessee from Mississippi. They were thwarted by African-American Union troops who were stationed nearby. Union Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut wrote of these troops in a dispatch dated December 17, 1863: "The recent affair at Moscow, Tennessee, has demonstrated…READ MORE

Tupelo

Union Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith, commanding the Sixteenth Corps with more than 14,000 men, left LaGrange, Tennessee on July 5, 1864, and advanced south. Smith's mission was to insure that Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest and his cavalry did not raid Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's railroad supply line in middle Tennessee supporting the campaign against Atlanta. Laying waste to the countryside as he advanced, Smith reached Pontotoc, Mississippi, on July 11th. Forrest was in nearby Okolona with about 6,000 men, bu…READ MORE