As Confederate Gen. Nathan B. Forrest's cavalry brigade approached Trenton in December 1862, Union Col. Jacob Fry prepared to meet the attack. Although Fry had fortified the high ground overlooking the town, he received orders to transfer his 500 men to Jackson. This left him with 250 "convalescents, stragglers, fugitives, and other soldiers"-only enough to defend the Mobile and Ohio Railroad depot, which he barricaded with cotton bales.
