Battle of Egypt Station

Battle of Egypt Station
Part of the American Civil War
Union cavalryman
Date December 28, 1864 Location Egypt, Chickasaw County, Mississippi Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Benjamin Grierson	Franklin Gardner Samuel J. Gholson (WIA)
Strength
3,500	1,200–2,000, 4 guns
Casualties and losses
128	Over 500 captured

The Battle of Egypt Station (December 28, 1864) was an engagement in Mississippi that took place during a successful Union cavalry raid during the American Civil War. A 3,500-man Union cavalry division under Brigadier General Benjamin Grierson defeated Confederate troops led by Franklin Gardner and Samuel J. Gholson. Grierson's raiding cavalry left Memphis, Tennessee on 21 December and first demolished a Confederate supply depot at Verona. Moving south while wrecking bridges and track along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the Union raiders encountered the Confederate defenders at Egypt Station. After their victory, Grierson's cavalry headed southwest to Vicksburg which it reached on January 5, 1865. The raiders destroyed a large amount of Confederate supplies and also damaged the Mississippi Central Railroad. Some of the men captured by Grierson's raiders proved to be former Union soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy rather than languish in prison camps. When John Bell Hood's army retreated into northern Mississippi after the Battle of Nashville, it was unable to obtain supplies because Grierson's raiders had damaged the railroad so badly.