The Battle of Egypt Station (December 28, 1864) was an engagement in Mississippi that took place during a successful Union cavalry raid during the American Civil War. A 3,500-man Union cavalry division under Brigadier General Benjamin Grierson defeated Confederate troops led by Franklin Gardner and Samuel J. Gholson. Grierson's raiding cavalry left Memphis, Tennessee on 21 December and first demolished a Confederate supply depot at Verona. Moving south while wrecking bridges and track along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the Union raiders encountered the Confederate defenders at Egypt Station. After their victory, Grierson's cavalry headed southwest to Vicksburg which it reached on January 5, 1865. The raiders destroyed a large amount of Confederate supplies and also damaged the Mississippi Central Railroad. Some of the men captured by Grierson's raiders proved to be former Union soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy rather than languish in prison camps. When John Bell Hood's army retreated into northern Mississippi after the Battle of Nashville, it was unable to obtain supplies because Grierson's raiders had damaged the railroad so badly.
Background
The Battle of Nashville ended on December 16, 1864 with Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee fleeing from the battlefield after being routed by the Union army under George Henry Thomas. The Federal troops inflicted losses of about 2,300 killed and wounded and 4,462 captured on their opponents, while seizing 53 artillery pieces. At Franklin on December 17, the retreating Confederates managed to destroy the bridges, but James H. Wilson's Union cavalrymen forded the Harpeth River to capture 2,000 enemy soldiers too badly wounded to be moved. Later that day, Wilson's troopers overran Douglas's Texas Battery, capturing its three guns. Yet the Confederate rearguard was able to fend off Wilson's pursuit. Meanwhile, a blunder by Thomas sent the pontoon train by the wrong road so that the Federal pursuit was delayed. After bitter rearguard actions conducted by Nathan Bedford Forrest, the survivors of Hood's army crossed the Tennessee River on December 28 and passed out of the reach of Thomas and Wilson.
Verona
The commander of the Military Division of West Mississippi, Major General Napoleon J.T. Dana ordered Grierson and 3,300 cavalry to leave Memphis and attempt to break the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Grierson ordered his 1st Brigade under Colonel Joseph Kargé to move northeast on December 19 from Memphis toward Bolivar, Tennessee in a feint, then move south and join the main column near Ripley, Mississippi. Because the 1st Brigade was unable to cross a flooded river, it returned to Memphis without accomplishing this mission. Grierson's expedition left Memphis on December 21, 1864 and headed east along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad in the direction of Corinth, Mississippi. Grierson reported having 3,500 men, including 11 cavalry regiments organized into three brigades led by Colonels Kargé, Edward Francis Winslow, and Embury D. Osband. In addition, there was a 40-man company acting as escort, 50 African-Americans acting as pioneers, and 20 days' rations carried by pack mules. Grierson reported having no artillery and no wagons. However, historian Frederick H. Dyer stated that Battery "K", 2nd Illinois Light Artillery Regiment accompanied the raid and fought at Egypt Station.
When the Union column reached a point west of Moscow, Tennessee, it veered to the southeast and passed through Lamar, Mississippi before arriving at Ripley. The 10th Missouri Cavalry Regiment left the column and cut the telegraph lines at LaGrange and Grand Junction, Tennessee and rejoined Grierson's division before it reached Ripley. From Ripley, a detachment from the 2nd New Jersey Cavalry Regiment marched to Booneville and the 4th Illinois Cavalry Regiment moved to Guntown to damage the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at those places. They destroyed four bridges, several miles of track, and military supplies before rejoining the main column.