Following the Battle of Franklin, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry division and Gen. William Bate’s infantry division advanced toward that town on December 2, 1864 along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. Forrest’s troopers in Gen. Abraham Buford’s division began attacking the railroad bridges near Nashville and the blockhouses defending them for purposes of cutting off communications between Gen. George Thomas in Nashville and Gen. Lovell Rousseau commanding the garrison at Fortress Rosecrans. The first blockhouse Buford’s cavalry attacked was Blockhouse No. 2 near Mill Creek.
Jefferson
As part of the Stone’s River campaign, Confederate General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry brigade left Murfreesboro near midnight on a raid