Fighting for Trenton ~ Trenton, TN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 58.857 W 088° 56.488
16S E 324967 N 3983578
Marker standing just to the right of the Civil War Monument.
Waymark Code: WMA674
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 11/22/2010
Views: 9
County of Marker: Gibson County
Location of marker: E Eaton St., courthouse lawn, Trenton
Marker Text:
TENNESSEE CIVIL WAR TRAILS
FIGHTING FOR TRENTON
Rifling the Courthouse
FORREST'S FIRST WEST TENNESSEE RAID
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led his cavalry brigade on a raid through West Tennessee, Dec. 15, 1862 - Jan. 3, 1863, destroying railroads an severing Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's supply line between Columbus, Kentucky and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Forrest crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton, defeated Union Col. Robert C. Ingersoll's cavalry at Lexington, captured Trenton and Union City, and ranged briefly into Kentucky. He raided back through Tennessee, evaded defeat at Parker's Cross Roads, and crossed the river again at Clifton. Grant changed his supply base to Memphis.
Confederate Gen. Nathan B. Forrest's cavalry brigade captured Trenton, an important stop on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, on December 20, 1862. He and his men occupied the town briefly before riding on toward Union City the next day. Forrest's aide, Capt. Charles W. Anderson, allegedly entered the Gibson County courthouse here, gathered the bonds and oaths of allegiance to the United States that Trenton residents had signed, piled them in the yard, and set them afire.
Corp. William H.H. Ibbetson, of Co. D, 122nd Illinois Infantry, described the war's effects on the town. He arrived in Trenton with his regiment on October 9, 1862. The unit had ridden in boxcars used for transporting cattle by rail to Corinth, Mississippi. In his diary, Ibbetson wrote the next day, the regiment "went into quarters that evening in a large store on the west side of the [courthouse] square. The town is very nice, but shows unmistakable signs of the Civil War. It used to have a population of 1,500 but now not more than 500 remain. A great many homes are vacant."
The Russell-Hill Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, erected the Confederate monument in 1907.