Brian Neely, left, and Shelby Scott, both members of the Brice's Crossroads museum board, walk around the site of what will become the new Holland Ridge site that will recognize the Black soldiers who fought at Brice's Crossroads during the Civil War.
Brian Neely, left, and Shelby Scott discuss the importance of the bridge over Tishomingo Creek during the Battle of Brice's Crossroads and the role Black soldiers played as they get ready to open a new site that will recognize those troops.
Brian Neely points out where the retreating federal troops headed from an open field down the hill to the only bridge over Tishomingo Creek. Black troops fired on the advancing Confederate infantry and cavalry, helping the Union forces retreat to Memphis.
BALDWYN – By summer, a marble monument will be installed on Holland Ridge to honor the Black soldiers whose courage prevented the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads from being a complete Confederate rout.
Officials plan to unveil the Holland Ridge interpretive site on Saturday, June 10 in honor of the 159th anniversary of the battle. The site is located on Union County Road 166, about 1.5 miles away from the main battlefield location.
“We’ve already acquired the marble for the monument and we have the money, which came from a descendant of the Holland family,” said Brian Neely, president of the battlefield museum’s board.
The site must still be cleared and prepared. The result will feature a circle drive, parking spaces near the monument and placards with historical information. Once completed, the site will be added to the Brice’s Crossroads driving tour.
While military historians have long studied Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s tactics at Brice’s Crossroads, the role Black soldiers played during the battle has remained obscure. A lot of those troops mustered out of the Contraband Camp in Corinth.
“The details of the people fighting have always been left out,” Neely said. “We have to try to tell their stories. Many of them were recently freed slaves and couldn’t write. They displayed courage beyond expectations.”
When the battle began, there were two U.S Colored Infantry regiments and a Colored Light Artillery battery with two light cannons. Under the command of Col. Edward Bouton, they were supposed to only be for rearguard action and guarding the wagon train of supplies.
The battle started that Friday morning, and by mid-afternoon, federal troops — unaccustomed to enduring the heat and humidity while wearing wool uniforms — were exhausted. The Union troops began retreating, heading northwest toward Ripley and on to Memphis.
“They started falling back to the only bridge that crossed the Tishomingo Creek,” Neely said. “A wagon had turned over and blocked the bridge, and the retreating Union troops panicked. All 10,000 men tried to cross this little bridge. Many jumped into the creek that was swollen by recent rains and were drowned.”
Even though the Colored Troops were not supposed to be in the fight, Bouton threw his units at the Confederates and slowed them down. That gave enough time to move the wagon and get the troops across the one-lane timber bridge.
“The whole expedition was almost wiped out,” Neely said. “The Colored Troops did what is called a rolling retreat. They would run back 30-40 yards, then stop and shoot. Then retreat another 30-40 yards and shoot again.”
The Union forces were able to reach Holland Ridge, which was the first organized defense of the retreat. They held off Forrest long enough to allow the Union Troops to head toward Ripley.
“It was a perfectly executed battle by Gen. Forrest,” Neely said. “If not for the African Americans and some Minnesota troops, the Union forces would have been annihilated.”
