Battle of Johnsonville

Battle of Johnsonville
Part of the American Civil War
Date November 4–5, 1864 Location Benton County / Humphreys County, near Johnsonville, Tennessee 36°04′15″N 87°58′33″W / 36.0708°N 87.9757°W / 36.0708; -87.9757 Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Charles R. Thompson Edward M. King	Nathan Bedford Forrest
Units involved
Johnsonville garrison	Forrest's Cavalry Division
Strength
4,000 [1] 3 gunboats
Casualties and losses
150 captured[2]	2 killed 9 wounded[2]

The Battle of Johnsonville was fought November 4–5, 1864, in Benton and Humphreys counties, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. Confederate cavalry commander Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest culminated a 23-day raid through western Tennessee by attacking the Union supply base at Johnsonville. Forrest's attack destroyed a total of 28 Union boats and barges in the Tennessee River and millions of dollars of supplies, disrupting the logistical operations of Union Major General George H. Thomas in Nashville. As a result, Thomas's army was hampered in its plan to defeat Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's invasion of Tennessee, known as the Franklin–Nashville campaign. (Thomas eventually succeeded in repulsing Hood.)

Part of the battlefield has been preserved in Johnsonville State Historic Park. Much of the original battleground was submerged by the creation of Kentucky Lake in 1944.