Tour Stop #8 - Tishomingo Creek Bridge at the Battle of Brices Cross Roads

View looking at the reconstructed bridge from Tishomingo Creek

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Mississippi Hwy 370, west of Baldwyn, MS

Significance:

Tour Stop #8 at Brices Cross Roads

Designation:

National Battlefield Site

MANAGED BY:

Mississippi Final Stands Interpretive Center

Amenities

4 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Scenic View/Photo Spot

The end of the main part of the Battle at Brices Cross Roads centered on a small bridge across Tishomingo Creek. The rains of the previous several days had raised the water level of the creek, making it difficult to cross without using the bridge. The bridge soon became a bottleneck for General Sturgis expeditionary force as horses, wagons, cannon, and men attempted to cross the creek.

Oscar Kelton was one of many union soldiers killed on June 10, 1864. During the Federal army retreat near the creek is when Oscar Kelton was killed in action while the rest of the federal army retreated back to Memphis. On June 15th, five days after the battle, the Kelton family received a telegram that no family wanted to receive. It was sent by one of Oscar’s comrades and read “Oscar D Kelton was killed in battle near Corinth last friday his body is in the hands of the enemy...”

Two years later in 1866 Fernando Kelton, Oscar’s father traveled to the Brices Cross Roads battlefield to find his son’s remains and transport him home to Columbus, OH. Fernando was able to find Oscar’s remains with the help of a local woman and Oscar was returned to his family in Ohio on May 7, 1866 and was buried in the family plot at the Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, OH.

See  1st LT Oscar Kelton for additional information..

A critical factor in the Union defeat at Brices Cross Roads was the decision, by an unknown officer, to bring most if not all of the Union supply train across the Tishomingo Creek Bridge and in the area you now stand. When the time came to retreat, the slow moving wagons clogged the narrow bridge, creating a panic among the exhausted soldiers. 

The supply train consisted of 250 wagons, each pulled by a team of four to six horses or mules. The wagons carried ammunition, food, forage and equipment and also served as ambulances.

The Brice's Crossroads Battlefield main battlefield site is managed by the Mississippi Final Stands Visitor and Interpretative Center in Baldwyn, Mississippi.