Aot - 1865

[larry_cockerham]

Early the next morning Forrest arrived at Selma, "horse and rider covered in blood." He advised Gen. Richard Taylor, departmental commander, to leave the city. Taylor did so after giving Forrest command of the defense.


Nathan B. Forrest
Selma was protected by three miles of fortifications which ran in a semi-circle around the city. They were anchored on the north and south by the Alabama River. The works had been built two years earlier, and while neglected for the most part since, were still formidable. They were 8 to 12 feet high, 15 feet thick at the base, with a ditch 4 feet wide and 5 feet deep along the front. In front of this was a picket fence of heavy posts planted in the ground, 5 feet high, and sharpened at the top. At prominent positions, earthen forts were built with artillery in position to cover the ground over which an assault would have to be made.
Forrest's defenders consisted of his Tennessee escort company, McCullough's Missouri Regiment, Crossland's Kentucky Brigade, Roddey's Alabama Brigade, Armstrong's Mississippi Brigade, Gen. Dan Adam's state reserves, and the citizens of Selma who were "volunteered" to man the works. Altogether this force numbered less than 4,000, only half of who were dependable. The Selma fortifications were built to be defended by 20,000 men. Forrest's soldiers had to stand 10 to 12 feet apart in the works.

 

[larry_cockerham]

Wilson's force arrived in front of the Selma fortifications at 2 pm. He had placed Gen. Eli Long's Division across the Summerfield Road with the Chicago Board of Trade Battery in support. He had Gen. Emory Upton's Division placed across the Range Line Road with Battery I, 4th US Artillery in support. Altogether Wilson had 9,000 troops available for the assault.
The Federal commander's plan was for Upton to send in a 300 man detachment after dark to cross the swamp on the Confederate right; enter the works, and begin a flanking movement toward the center moving along the line of fortifications. Then a single gun from Upton's artillery would signal the attack by the entire Federal Corps.
At 5 pm, however, Gen. Long's ammunition train in the rear was attacked by advance elements of Forrest's scattered forces coming toward Selma. Both Long and Upton had positioned significant numbers of troops in their rear for just such an event. However, Long decided to commence his assault against the Selma fortifications to neutralize the enemy attack in his rear.
Long's troops attacked in a single rank in three main lines, dismounted with Spencers carbines blazing, supported by their own artillery fire. The Confederates replied with heavy small arms and artillery fire of their own. The Southern artillery, in one of the many ironies of the Civil War, only had solid shot on hand, while just a short distance away was and arsenal which produced tons of canister, a highly effective anti-personnel ammunition.

 

[larry_cockerham]

The Federals suffered many casualties (including General Long himself) but not enough to break up the attack. Once the Yankees reached the works, there was vicious hand-to-hand fighting. Many soldiers were struck down with clubbed muskets. But the Yankees kept pouring into the works. In less than 30 minutes, Long's men had captured the works protecting the Summerfield Road.
Meanwhile, General Upton, observing Long's success, ordered his division forward. The story was much the same for his men as on Long's front. Soon, US flags could be seen waving over the works from Range Line Road to Summerfield Road.
After the outer works fell, General Wilson himself led the 4th US Cavalry Regiment in a mounted charge down the Range Line Road toward the unfinished inner line of works. The retreating Confederate forces, upon reaching the inner works, all allied and poured a devastating fire into the charging Yankee column. This broke up the charge and sent General Wilson sprawling to the ground when his favorite horse was wounded. He quickly remounted his stricken mount and ordered a dismounted assault by several regiments.

 

[larry_cockerham]

the battle ends

Mixed units of Confederate troops had also occupied the Selma railroad depot and the adjoining banks of the railroad bed to make a stand next to the Plantersville Road (present day Broad Street). The fighting there was heavy, but by 7 pm the superior numbers of Union troops had managed to flank the Southern positions causing them to abandon the depot as well as the inner line of works.
In the darkness, the Yankees rounded up hundreds of prisoners, but hundreds more escaped down the Burnsville Road, including Generals Forrest, Armstrong, and Roddey. To the west, many Confederate soldiers fought the pursuing Yankees all the way down to the eastern side of Valley Creek. They escaped in the darkness by swimming across the Alabama River near the mouth of Valley Creek (where the present day Battle of Selma Reenactment is held.)
The Yankees looted the city that night while many businesses and private residences were burned. They spent the next week destroying the arsenal and naval foundry. Then they left Selma heading to Montgomery and then Columbus and Macon, Georgia, and the end of the war.

 

[larry_cockerham]

Selma today and a farewell to Forrest

This little city was to gain fame from the civil rights marches begun there in the 1960s when African Americans continued their struggle for recognition and equality, something the Civil War had started, but never really completed. Barnhill's Buffet in nearby M e r i d i a in 2004, while filled nearly to capacity with the Tuskegee football team, was also about thirty per cent occupied by white customers, myself included. That would not have been the case before 1960. Driving through south Mississippi and Alabama today, one can see folks of all races in both public and private situations with no animosity, going about their respective business. If the Civil War contributed to that, it may have been worth the trouble.


Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops surrendered 140 miles southwest from here in Citronelle, Alabama May 5, 1865 with the army in command of Lt. Gen. Taylor who had replaced Gen. John Bell Hood.

 

[larry_cockerham]

Another word on railroads around Selma

"Wayne Cline's Alabama Railroads illustrates why for the Confederacy the significant gaps in the state's railroad lines proved disastrous. Although the unfinished line from Pollard to Tensaw was completed within the first year of war, there was no Tensaw to Mobile connection until after 1865. With Herculean efforts a spur line was built from the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad to connect the Confederate industrial complex at Selma with the iron ore regions and iron furnaces of the mineral district; but the failure to bridge the Tombigbee River and connect Selma with M e r i d i a n, Mississippi, prevented the rapid flow of troops and supplies to the west. The railroad route between Chattanooga, Tennessee, through the hill country and the mineral district of Alabama to M e r i d i a n, Mississippi, would have helped the Confederate cause, but although some of the survey was graded, the railroad remained only a dream until the 1870s."

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 7 and April 8, 1865 in Alabama

April 7, 1865

Gen. Wilson left Selma, but was forced to return because of rain-swollen nearby streams.

April 8, 1865

On this day Wilson was able to reach the town of Cahawba where he met with Nathan Bedford Forrest at the home of Col. Matthews a wealthy planter and Unionist. Wilson described Forrest: "I found him loosely put together, and he appeared rather under than over six feet. His frame was large and his body full and I guessed his weight at one hundred and seventy-five pounds. His countenance was serious, his conduct diffident, but self-possessed, and his bearing from military affectations. It took but a glance to discover that life and duties were all-important to him, and that whatever engaged his attention would receive most careful consideration." After dinner Forrest denied the authority for a prisoner exchange, but offered Wilson information on Croxton's location.

On the 8th Gen. Stewart received orders to consolidate the depleted regiments.

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 9, 1865, a day in history

Some of the following is from a transcription of the diary of William Taylor Mumford Company B First Louisiana Heavy Artillery Regiment (April 1865)

April 9, 1865

Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant.

Much depleted after the Bentonville fight, Palmer's Brigade was reorganized. On April 9, 1865 the 63rd Virginia was consolidated with the 54th Virginia. ( Between the two regiments, they could barely muster 100 men).The new organization was designated the 54th Battalion of Virginia Infantry under the command of Lt. Col. Connelly H. Lynch. Brig. Gen. Palmer was placed in command of a brigade of 43 consolidated Tennessee regiments in Gen. Bates' Division. The 58th and 60th North Carolina Regiments were consolidated and transferred to Brantley's Brigade in D.H. Hill's Division which was under the command of Col. J. G. Coltart.

 

[larry_cockerham]

Pettus Brigade

Pettus' Brigade

19th Alabama Infantry Regt.
20th Alabama Infantry Regt.
23rd Alabama Infantry Regt.
31st Alabama Infantry Regt.
54th Virginia Infantry Bn.

After the reorganization of the units, the 54th Va. Inf. Bn. ( 63rd Va. and 54th Va. consolidated) with Pettus' Brigade was sent back to the Yadkin River as a rear guard to secure the bridges. The 63rd was here when news of Lee's surrender in Virginia reached them. While the 63rd was guarding the Yadkin River Bridge, President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet crossed the bridge and headed to Salisbury. Johnston surrendered his Army of Tennessee shortly after this. Some soldiers, upon hearing of Lee's surrender just went home.

 

[larry_cockerham]

Private Whit Parker

Private Whitfield Monroe Parker, in his 20th year at this time, may well have accompanied the 63rd Virginia Infantry to Salisbury before catching a train north into Virginia and then making his way by rail back to Wallace's Switch just west of Bristol, where he needed assistance on the trek back to his nearby residence. His pension application stated he 'served until war's end'. Sinah Mariah Holt was there to greet him. New and greater things than this horrible war were on the horizon for this young couple; John Henry Parker for one thing, my great grandfather.

Larry Cockerham>Hazel Virginia Parker>Robert Francis Parker>John Henry Parker>Private Whitfield Monroe Parker

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 10, 1865

April 10, 1865

Jefferson Davis and his party left Danville on the way to Greensboro, North Carolina.

The situation was becoming a mite uncomfortable for the President of the Confederacy. He was guarding the treasury and his butt, both to the best of his ability, as he moved south toward more nearly friendly territory. Like many a young man to follow him in life, the U.S. Army wanted him and was soon on his trail.

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 11.1865

Cheatham's Corps, the remainder of the once proud Army of Tennessee was in Raleigh, North Carolina

General James Harrison Wilson's 4th US Cavalry was between Church Hill and Lowndesborough, Alabama.

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 12, 1865

On the [Steamer] Sumpter, going up the Tombigby River. Demopolis is supposed to be our destination. Having no relief for the engineers or pilots, we stopped about dark at a small place called Jackson and remained there all night. [Steamer] Heroine anchored in the stream just alongside.

James Wilson's cavalry entered Montgomery, Alabama which had previously been surrendered without a shot being fired. Colonel Coopers detachments "destroyed the arsenal containing 20,000 stands of small arms, one foundry and moulding shop, a car wheel-foundry, a niter works, the Pensacola and West Point Railroad depot, along with a locomotive, 20 rail cars, and a machine shop containing a number of unfinished cars.", as per Jerry Keenan in his Wilson's Cavalry Corps.

 

[larry_cockerham]

The End for Abe

April 13, 1865 Cheatham's Corps in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

April 14, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln shot. He died next day.

Good Friday, April 14, 1865, ... Shortly after 10:00 P.M., in the presidential box at Ford's Theater, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth. ... General Grant had turned down an invitation to attend, pleading he had to visit his children. It was known there was "chilliness" between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant. At the theater ... a pistol shot was heard ... A bullet had gone through the back of the head and lodged near the right eye.... Sec. of War Stanton took charge of the pursuit of Booth and his accomplices as the telegraph wires hummed the awesome news to the nation. General Grant was at Baltimore when informed of the tragedy and he immediately returned to Washington. ...

 

[larry_cockerham]

Back in Alabama

April 14, 1865

(Good Friday) Arrived in Demopolis at 12.30 A.M. and after a few hours delay, marched to a camping ground about two miles from the landing. Col. Chas. A. Fuller, 1st La. Arty., in command of all the troops, about sixteen hundred all told. A most miserable camping ground, very low and swampy. No rations issued yet, the command greatly in need of something to eat. Great confusion, no one seems to know his business. The garrisons of McIntosh and Gladden are greatly in want of equipment, etc., for service in the field. What will be our next move, puzzles all.

General James Wilson's command left Montgomery this day and had a brief skirmish with Buford's cavalry about 12 miles to the east.

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 15, 1865

At 7:22 A.M., President Abraham Lincoln died. ... The Cabinet, except for the injured Seward, formally requested Vice-President Andrew Johnson to assume the office of President. At 11:00 A.M. at the Kirkwood Hotel, Chief Justice, Salmon Chase administered the oath in the presence of the Cabinet and congressman.

This day General James Wilson reached Tuskegee, Alabama.

Jefferson Davis authorized Johnston to negotiate terms with Sherman and headed south with a cavalry escort towards Salisbury, North Carolina.

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 16, 1865

Wilson reached Columbus, Georgia, the site of an important naval ironworks. Rivercraft were repaired and built here in great numbers until the war began drawing to a close. The city was defended by Major General Howell Cobb, former secretary of the US Treasury under President James Buchanan and later the first president of the Confederate Congress. Cobb had a force of only about 3,000 men to defend the otherwise well-fortified city. The fierce battle only lasted a couple of hours. Wilson had a formidable force. The same or next day he captured West Point, Georgia and Fort Tyler.

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 17, 1865

Generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston met at the Bennett House near Durham N.C. A short time before, Sherman had received news of the assassination of the President. Johnston told Sherman it was a great calamity to the South. In their talks the two generals went further than just surrendering Johnstons army. They discussed the terms of an armistice for all the remaining Confederate armies. Sherman later disclaimed going beyond negotiations over Johnston's army but admitted: "it did seem to me that there was presented a chance for peace that might deem valuable to the Government of the United States and was at least worth the few days that would be consumed in reference." They agreed to meet the next day.

Jefferson Davis arrived at Salisbury, North Carolina

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 18, 1865

"Left McDowell's Landing at 6.30 A.M. on the train for *******n. Arrived safely at *******n at 2 P.M. Drew rations at the depot and marched out two miles from town to camp. All kinds of rumors in circulation about the capture of Lee's army and the death of President Lincoln and Mr. Seward. About sixty men of the regiment sent to the hospital in the last two days. A few men desert every night. Full rations issued to the troops now and a small ration of coffee and sugar. Gold sold today at one hundred for one, and greenbacks at seventy-five for one."

 

[larry_cockerham]

April 18, 1865 Charlotte, NC

Jefferson Davis spent two weeks in Charlotte, NC. He was giving a speech this day when he received word of Lincoln's assassination.