Colonel Lewis Zahm’s Union cavalry brigade was ordered to move against a small Confederate cavalry force at Franklin led by Colonel Baxter Smith. Zahm’s goal was to clear out Franklin and protect the right flank of the Union army’s march from Nashville to Murfreesboro. Zahm made initial contact with Confederate pickets at 3 p.m. around two miles from Franklin and quickly forced Smith’s men back to town. The major fighting appears to have occurred just north of town at the Harpeth River crossing and in town. Zahm captured the town and pursued Smith’s men for about two miles. Union forces left Franklin that night, and it was reoccupied by Confederate forces the next day.