On Thursday, October 29, 1863 Confederate President Jefferson Davis, while in Atlanta, Georgia, approved a request of General Nathan B. Forrest which would detach Forrest’s command from Braxton Bragg’s army besieging Chattanooga in order to conduct a raid into north Mississippi and west Tennessee.
It was a well known fact that Bragg and Forrest had experienced personal difficulties and detaching Forrest’s cavalry from Bragg’s army would resolve yet another conflict within Bragg’s command.
Given that his western trip and calls for “harmonious co-operation” by his generals in the field had not been overly successful, Davis now made the decision to return to the Confederate capital at Richmond via Savannah, Georgia and Charlestown, South Carolina, two cities he had not visited since the outbreak of the war.