Re-post
It was the twilight of the Confederacy
in the spring of 1865. Federal armies were tramping throughout the
southern states, burning, pillaging, and destroying anything of value,
with little resistance from the remnants of the Confederate army. In
late March of 1865 Union General John T. Croxton was given orders to
take his cavalry force of 1500 troopers to Tuscaloosa and "destroy the
bridge, factories, mills, university, and whatever else may be of
benefit to the rebel cause." Three hundred young men from the Alabama
Corps of Cadets ranging in ages from 15 to 20 years old were all that
stood before the invading force.
More @ John Paul Strain
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This was part of Wilson's Raid. Maj. Gen. Emory Upton started from Muscle Shoals, Alabama with the largest cavalry force ever assembled on the North American continent, Their mission was to destroy anything of value to the Confederate war effort and ultimately destroy the arsenal at Selma. Along the way they split into three prongs as they moved south and laid waste to railroads, bridges, stores of crops, the iron works at Tannehill where they burned the homes of over 700 slaves before "freeing" them. Then it was on to Tuscaloosa and eventually Selma where NBF and the workers of the Selma arsenal put up a heck of fight..One of the "prongs" of about five thousand troopers passed within about five miles of where I live and spent the night at Clear Creek Falls while on the journey south.
ReplyDeleteGreat info and thanks.
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they burned the homes of over 700 slaves before "freeing" them.
Typical.