Generals Hurlbut and Buckland were also looked for, but those officers were so fortunate as to escape. In his telegraphic report of this daring exploit Forrest stated that he had killed and captured 400 of the enemy, and captured their entire camp with about 300 horses and mules. His loss was 35 killed and wounded. By this forcible demonstration of his daring and ability Forrest compelled Smith's army to abandon its advance to the interior and turn about in an effort to intercept his return to Mississippi, in which, of course, it utterly failed.
General Forrest's command, as organized at the close of August, included the two veteran divisions of Chalmers and Buford. The Tennessee brigade formerly commanded by Rucker was in charge of Col. D. C. Kelly, and McCulloch's brigade, mainly Mississippians, included Colonel Hyam's rangers, the Fifth regiment, under Maj. W. B. Peery, the Eighteenth battalion, under Col. A. H. Chalmers, and the Nineteenth battalion, under Col. W. L. Walker. Lyon again led his Kentucky brigade and Bell commanded his Tennesseeans.
At the same period, Gen. Wirt Adams was in command of the district north of the Homochitto up to Forrest's district, with the brigades of Colonel Wood and Colonel Mabry; and the district south of the Homochitto was in charge of Brig.-Gen. George B. Hodge, with Scott's brigade. In the district of Central and Northern Alabama, also in Maury's department, Gen. D. W. Adams had two brigades, Clanton's and Armistead's. The latter contained Armistead's Mississippi regiment, under Col. Philip B. Spence. The military posts in Mississippi were commanded as follows: Aberdeen, Col. Marshall T. Polk; Brandon, Capt. Wm. R. Spears; Canton, Capt. John N. Archer; Columbus, Col. Levi McCullum; Enterprise, Maj. M. S. Ward; Grenada, Lieut.-Col. Nathaniel Wickliffe; Jackson, Lieut-Col. Archibald Macfarlane; Macon, Maj. Bell G. Bidwell; Meridian, Lieut.-Col. G. W. Law; Okolona, Maj. E. G. Wheeler;
