Holly Springs Raid

Holly Springs Raid
Part of the Western Theater of the American Civil War
Earl Van Dorn
Date December 20, 1862 Location Holly Springs, Mississippi 34°46′24″N 89°26′47″W / 34.77333°N 89.44639°W / 34.77333; -89.44639 Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
Confederate States	United States
Commanders and leaders
Earl Van Dorn	Robert C. Murphy
Strength
3,500	1,630
Casualties and losses
negligible	1,500 captured

The Holly Springs Raid (December 20, 1862) saw Earl Van Dorn lead Confederate cavalry against a Union supply depot at Holly Springs, Mississippi during the American Civil War. The mounted raiders achieved complete surprise, capturing the Federal garrison and destroying $1.5 million of supplies intended for Ulysses S. Grant's army. In the following days, Van Dorn's troopers moved north along the Mississippi Central Railroad almost to Bolivar, Tennessee, destroying track and bridges, before escaping into northern Mississippi. The damage inflicted by the Holly Springs Raid together with the harm caused by Nathan Bedford Forrest's West Tennessee Raids forced Grant's Union army to withdraw to Memphis. Additionally, both Van Dorn and Forrest's raids obstructed the full implementation of Grant's controversial General Order No. 11 for weeks, preventing many Jewish people from being expelled from Grant's military district.