The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the American Civil War.

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital, the camps of several small Union units, and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

On June 10, 1862, Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, started a leisurely advance toward Chattanooga.

By July, Confederate cavalry under the command of Forrest and Colonel John Hunt Morgan were raiding into Middle Tennessee and Kentucky.

Forrest left Chattanooga on July 9 with two cavalry regiments and joined other units on the way, bringing the total force to about 1,400 men.

[2] The major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, at dawn on July 13.

Between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 13, a group of 15 cavalrymen[7] avoided the midnight patrols and surprised the Union pickets on the Woodbury Pike, east of Murfreesboro.

The third column composed of the Col. William Lawton's 2nd Georgia Cavalry and the attached infantry battalions moved north to the Lebanon Pike and cut off an escape route for the 9th Michigan.

Now being the highest-ranking officer inside Murfreesboro, Colonel Duffield gave Lt. Col. Parkhurst the command to form the 9th Michigan on their company streets as more enemy cavalry approached.

Wharton's Texans struck the Michiganders, compelling them to withdraw to the fence line in front of the Maney House where they would hold their position against multiple attacks.