Mark

Just doing a quick word search in the OR's for Tulip revealed 3 or 4 skirmishes in the Tulip to Princeton Areas as later as October of 1864. In October 1864 expedition that Union Cavalry, from Benton, captured a small hospital at Princetown. So it seeem that there was activity in that area quite regularly.

These engagements seem to have been about Company size on the Confedrate Part.

As for the Jenkins Ferry Campaign I get the impression that Churchill and Parson Brigades arrived at Tulip just a few hours after the Union rear Guard pulled out to continue their retreat to Jenkins ferry. It is quite conceivable that this Union Rear Guard were the ones who built "fortification" as Tulip according to the maps would have had to have been held at all cost because of it's importance as a road juncture, in order to allow Steele enough time to get across the Saline river. Certainly these "fortifications" wouldn't have been extensive in their scope. Probably no more that rifle pits, earthworks and logs. But concidering how closely the Confederates were following and knowing that the Saline bottoms were reportedly almost 5 miles of mud for the union army to cross, the Union rear Guard may well have been preparing for a last ditch stand at Tulip. And by that time digging in quickly had become an artform.