The 27th Texas Cavalry missed the Battle of Nashville because Hood ordered Forrest to take the divisions of Jackson and Abraham Buford to Murfreesboro. Hood hoped that by harassing its 8,000-man Federal garrison, he would compel the Union army of George H. Thomas at Nashville to commit a blunder. At the Third Battle of Murfreesboro on 7 December 1864, Forrest set a trap for a 3,325-man Union force under Robert H. Milroy. While the Federal infantry made a frontal attack on Forrest's infantry, Jackson's cavalry would attack them from the rear. In the event, the Confederate infantry ran away so quickly that the Union force captured two guns and 207 men before Jackson's horsemen could intervene.
