7th Mississippi Infantry
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2013
- Location
- Southwest Mississippi
A new article about Forrest at Selma, Alabama:
by early 1865, Wilson conducted a raid against Forrest’s units in Alabama that was designed to destroy the enemy’s forces, lines of communications and military resources. Forrest’s troops were principally concentrated in Selma, protecting a joint Army-Navy ordnance production complex. At its peak, it included a naval foundry, shipyard, army arsenal and gunpowder works employing some 9,000 workers in 160 buildings.
Throughout the war, the mercurial and combative Forrest — a former Tennessee planter and slave trader — had been the bête noire of the Union command in the West. Although a regular cavalry officer, he often operated like a partisan ranger, attacking vulnerable targets behind Union lines.
Forrest had a difficult task ahead, considering Wilson’s powerful cavalry force numbering more than 13,000 men armed with seven shot Spencer carbines. Forrest’s cavalrymen had suffered heavy casualties in recent battles; therefore, he could only muster about 7,000 — yet, Wilson was aware that the wily Forrest had overcome similar odds in the past.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.coastalpoint.com/content...arean-wilson-defeats-forrest-selma_04_06_2017
by early 1865, Wilson conducted a raid against Forrest’s units in Alabama that was designed to destroy the enemy’s forces, lines of communications and military resources. Forrest’s troops were principally concentrated in Selma, protecting a joint Army-Navy ordnance production complex. At its peak, it included a naval foundry, shipyard, army arsenal and gunpowder works employing some 9,000 workers in 160 buildings.
Throughout the war, the mercurial and combative Forrest — a former Tennessee planter and slave trader — had been the bête noire of the Union command in the West. Although a regular cavalry officer, he often operated like a partisan ranger, attacking vulnerable targets behind Union lines.
Forrest had a difficult task ahead, considering Wilson’s powerful cavalry force numbering more than 13,000 men armed with seven shot Spencer carbines. Forrest’s cavalrymen had suffered heavy casualties in recent battles; therefore, he could only muster about 7,000 — yet, Wilson was aware that the wily Forrest had overcome similar odds in the past.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.coastalpoint.com/content...arean-wilson-defeats-forrest-selma_04_06_2017