The Big Book of CIVIL WAR SITES

With the exceptions of the Vicksburg-Jackson, Mobile, and Shiloh-Corinth campaigns, the Civil War actions in Alabama and Mississippi largely consisted of smash-and-grab cavalry raids and small militia engagements. These two states, the very heartland of the Southern Confederacy, ironically came through the war nearly unscathed, as the major battles raged in their neighboring states to the east. Even where major battles did occur within their borders, as at Vicksburg and Mobile, the combat action stayed relatively close geographically to those cities, leaving the surrounding countryside mostly unmolested.

In this chapter we will concentrate on one relatively small but very significant battle in Mississippi and try to point out some of the other significant landmarks in both states. For a more in-depth discussion of the major campaigns fought in these states, please turn to the specific chapters on Mobile, Vicksburg, and Shiloh.

ALABAMA

Alabama was perhaps the Confederate state least directly affected militarily by the war. The fourth state to secede from the Union, the “Cradle of the Confederacy” served as the first national capital, was the home and first office for President Jefferson Davis, and remained throughout the war an important munitions and iron manufacturer and supplier to the Southern armies, but no grand campaigns marched through her until the very end, when nearly all resistance had faded away. Accurate records are very difficult to obtain or evaluate, but somewhere in the neighborhood of one-fifth of the entire population of the state enlisted in the military forces (about 100,000 men out of 500,000). About half of these men were killed or wounded during the war.

The population of Alabama was by no means unanimous in their support for the war, as in most other states both North and South. The mountainous northern sections were particularly noted for their strong pro-Union stance; in one there was a very serious attempt to “secede” from the state of Alabama and form an independent, county-size, and pro-Union sovereign nation. The Free State of Winston died in its planning stages, but both sides took note of the seeming anti-Confederate fever there and tried in their own ways to exploit it. Their efforts failed, for just as in mountainous regions all over the world, the local population wanted to be left to their own devices and not to be involved in “flatlander” squabbles.

Even this independent train of thought had its limitations. Part of a Union cavalry—the 1st Alabama Cavalry—was raised in Randolph County (on the southeastern edge of the independence-minded area), but the same county sent men to fill out in whole or in part some 30 artillery, cavalry, and infantry regiments for the Confederacy, not to mention a whole host of local militia and home guard units.

Union Raid into Central Alabama

Although the Union controlled most of northern Alabama by the second year of the war, it was not able to mount an offensive deep into the state until the strong Confederate garrisons in Mobile were eliminated. It was not until the last two months of the war, with Mobile safely under Union control and most of the other Alabama garrisons killed, captured, or scattered, that a raid deep into the state aimed at eliminating the strong arsenal at Selma and as many other manufacturing facilities and supply warehouses as could be safely captured or reduced. To this end, Major General James Harrison Wilson gathered more than 14,000 cavalrymen in extreme northwestern Alabama, just east of Corinth, Mississippi, in the early spring of 1865, preparing to mount a massive raid through the industrial heartland of Alabama and Georgia.

Wilson’s Raid to Selma, as it was originally known, was the largest single operation of its kind during the war, and one of the most successful, but to be perfectly blunt, it could not have succeeded at any objective if Confederate resistance was not collapsing everywhere just as it kicked off. The only combat forces available to resist during this 28-day raid were three seriously decimated brigades of Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry command, along with small remnants from Brigadier General James Ronald Chalmers’s Mississippi and Brigadier General William Hicks “Red” Jackson’s Tennessee Cavalry Divisions, and a small detachment from Brigadier General Philip Dale Roddy’s Alabama Cavalry Brigade. In a few places this pitiful force was joined by local militia, but at no point did Wilson face a force stronger than 5,000 Confederates. Forrest claimed that he had a total force available of some 12,000 men in early March, but it is much more likely that he had somewhere around half that number actually still sticking around.

Wilson’s Raid Sets Off

Wilson’s force concentrated at Eastport, Alabama, just across the border from northeastern Mississippi and left on its great raid on March 22. With only scattered resistance from bands of Forrest’s cavalry and small groups of infantry, they moved quickly in three columns southeast through the state, aiming straight for Selma. Forrest attempted to make a stand just north of Plantersville, 18 miles north of Selma, with a hastily assembled force of about 2,000 cavalrymen and militia. On the morning of April 2, Wilson’s vanguard on the Randolph-Plantersville Road (now Alabama Highways 139 and 22), the 72nd Indiana Mounted Infantry, encountered rail barricades set up by Roddey’s cavalry across the road. The Union force immediately attacked, forcing most of the Confederate cavalrymen to abandon their positions and fall back, while the rest covered their retreat. Wilson ordered his men to keep the pressure on, and a sort of “leapfrog” running battle soon ensued. The Confederates continued to fall back but kept up a hot fire as they did (this is a tactic known as a “fighting retreat”).

Forrest had deployed the rest of his small force about a mile behind Roddey’s position, and the Union force finally ran into his main line about 4 p.m. Believing they could just blow through Forrest’s thin line, the men of the 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry charged, led by Captain Frank White. Wilson had described White as a “berserker of the Norseman breed,” and the captain did his best to live up to that description. Charging into the line, into the very teeth of Forrest’s only battery of artillery, a vicious hand-to-hand combat broke out with the for-once superior numbers of Confederate infantry. Forrest himself joined in the fray, soon wounded by a saber blow from Captain James D. Taylor, but he killed his assailant moments later with his pistol. White and his men were soon hurled back with significant losses.

Wilson ordered another attack to begin at once, this time with a brigade-wide front of dismounted cavalry and infantry, well supported by a heavy attack on the right of the Confederate line. That part of Forrest’s line was held by the untrained and untried Alabama State Troops under Brigadier General Daniel Weisiger Adams. The militiamen soon caved in under the brutal attack, exposing Forrest’s whole line and within a few minutes forcing him to pull his command south into Selma. Although a relatively short affair, one Union soldier called the fight, “a right smart little skirmish.”

The Battle of Selma

A 5-mile-long series of earthworks and redoubts had been established in a semicircle around Selma, anchored on both ends to the Alabama River that flows across the south side of town. The most likely avenue of attack was from the north, the very direction Wilson was coming from, and the strongest parts of the line were here. In front of the trench line ran a parapet 6 to 8 feet tall, 8 feet thick at the base, and with a 5-foot-deep, 5-foot-wide ditch in front. While the fortifications were formidable, the garrison manning them was not. By the time Wilson closed in, Forrest’s command was so small that he had to space them nearly 10 feet apart to cover the entire line (the standard was something more like elbow distance apart, ideally). Again, an exact figure as to the strength of this force is impossible to ascertain, but somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 men manned the line, a bad mixture of hardened veterans of the Army of Tennessee alongside civilian preachers hastily “recruited” from the city churches.

The battle at Selma was almost anticlimactic from the start. Wilson’s men moved south quickly on the morning of April 2, and by 3 p.m. they were just outside the city defenses and moving in line ready to assault. A little after 4 p.m. one of Wilson’s divisions (Brigadier General Eli Long’s 2nd Cavalry) stormed the northwestern ramparts astride the Summerfield Road, clearing the formidable obstacle in one great charge. The Confederate defenders put up a mighty defense during the assault—as Long and his staff rode forward, one was killed by a sharpshooter and four were wounded, including Long himself, who was shot in the head. Major General Emory Upton’s 4th Cavalry Division had launched into the northeastern ramparts at nearly the same time, easily pushing over the parapet and encountering less resistance than Long suffered. As darkness fell, all Confederate resistance in the city broke, leaving Wilson his prize.

Wilson rested briefly in the small Alabama town and then gathered his force and headed east, toward his fateful rendezvous with the Confederate president himself.

MISSISSIPPI

The second state to declare secession (January 9, 1861), Mississippi was so enthusiastic as a whole to the new Confederacy that it somehow managed to contribute more fighting men to the Southern cause than the total number of white males it had in its 1860 census. More than 80,000 men served, mostly outside the state’s borders, although Mississippi was a heavily fought-over battleground most of the war. Less than one-fourth of that number were still present in their regiments at war’s end. While cavalry raids and operations ranged over most of the state repeatedly between 1862 and 1865, most large combat operations were concentrated in two areas: northeastern portions of the state around Corinth and Tupelo and the triangle between Vicksburg, Natchez, and Jackson (see the chapter on Vicksburg for a more thorough study of that campaign).

Corinth

This small town in extreme northeastern Mississippi came into prominence far out of proportion to its size during the war for two reasons—the Memphis & Charleston and Mobile & Ohio Railroads, which crossed in town. It was critical for the Confederacy to maintain control of these rail lines in order to maintain a cohesive and easily reinforceable front across the Western Theater, and it was equally critical for the Union to control them to prevent that very same thing.

After the disastrous fall of Forts Henry and Donelson in northern Tennessee in early 1862 (see the chapter on Other Tennessee Battlefields for a discussion of these battles), Western Department commander General Albert Sidney Johnston moved his headquarters to Corinth and tightened his lines of defense. As his western armies were badly outnumbered by the Union armies still assembling, Johnston decided to make the roads linking Memphis to Charleston his main line of resistance; he pulled troops away from Arkansas, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and most of Florida; and he initially abandoned plans to retake Kentucky. His strategy was to gather his forces in northern Mississippi, wait until the Union armies collected in Tennessee, and then strike hard and try to destroy their fighting capability before they could recover. While an excellent (and classic) strategy, it relied heavily on surprise and massive force, both of which were difficult to manage given the battlefield tactics and transportation methods of the day.

Map of the Battle of Corinth showing the lines of entrenchments made and routes followed by the U.S. forces under the command of Major General Halleck

Johnston gave General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard overall responsibility for assembling the scattered forces at Corinth and making them ready for battle. As Beauregard set about his task, Major General Henry Wager Halleck (commander, Department of the Mississippi) was sending his combined armies south to attack and take Corinth and Jackson, thus (hopefully) splitting the Confederate Western Theater neatly in half. Starting in early March 1862, Union forces started arriving in Savannah, Tennessee, to establish their forward base of operations for the move to Corinth, 30 miles to the south. Learning of the Union presence, Johnston decided to move out and strike the enemy force before it could fully deploy, even though a major portion of his own army had not yet arrived.

Johnston led about 40,000 men of his newly minted Army of the Mississippi north to the place where Union forces were landing for their own invasion—a small riverboat landing called Pittsburg Landing and better known for the local small country church, Shiloh (see the chapter on Shiloh for a discussion of this battle). After a two-day fiercely contested fight on April 6 and 7, which included the death of Johnston himself, Beauregard withdrew the battered army back to Corinth and dug in, while the Union Army was too exhausted and battered itself to pursue immediately.

Background to the Battle

Even before Johnston ordered the army out to Shiloh, work was under way to fortify Corinth. First begun as a series of simple breastworks on the north and east sides of town, after Beauregard brought the army back to town on April 8, 1862, work began in earnest to expand and improve the line. Work was complicated by the fact that hospitals, churches, and ordinary homes were filled to overflowing with Confederate wounded, as many as 8,000 by several accounts. Major General Earl Van Dorn’s Army of the West had finally arrived from Arkansas, along with a division under Brigadier (later Major) General Sterling “Pap” Price, joining General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Mississippi, fresh back from Shiloh, to give Beauregard nearly 66,000 combat troops in the small city.

Halleck moved his great Northern army very slowly south, starting out on April 29 and taking nearly a month to move the 20 miles to the outskirts of Corinth. His nearly 130,000-man army was composed of Brigadier (later Lieutenant) General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of Tennessee, Major General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, and Major General John Pope’s Army of the Mississippi, the very combined Union force that had so worried Johnston.

Johnston had only had to worry about Grant’s army the first day at Shiloh, and his successor Beauregard had been pushed off the field of battle when Buell’s army showed up the next day. As the three great Union armies slowly moved into an encompassing siege position around the city, it was obvious that there was no way the smaller Confederate force could win in open battle and to stay would be a slow starvation after the supply lines were cut. Beauregard decided to evacuate his forces while he still had the chance and hopefully work his armies into a position where they could take out the superior Union forces piecemeal.

On May 29 most of the sick and wounded, along with most of the available supplies, were moved down the Mobile & Ohio Railroad line south to Tupelo, while regimental and brigade commanders shuffled their commands around the city to give the Union force the idea that they were about to try a breakout attack. “Quaker guns” (logs painted black) replaced the artillery in their redoubts, and buglers blew their calls in deserted camps while the infantry quietly slipped out the unguarded back door, following the trains to Tupelo. During the night what was left of the cavalry slipped out just as quietly, leaving startled Union pickets to see only a deserted line of earthworks and redoubts guarding an equally deserted town when the dawn broke. Some historians state that this withdrawal was the beginning of the end for the western Confederacy, as it left the Union Army in a strong position with a large force deep in the Southern lines of communication.

The Battle of Corinth: Act 1

With Beauregard’s army safely out of the city, Halleck’s men cautiously entered Corinth, fully expecting some sort of trap or ambush. When a thorough search of the area turned up no sign of gray-clad infantry, Halleck undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief—and then set about strengthening the city’s fortifications for an expected attack. Over the next few months, a series of artillery batteries ringed by infantry emplacements were built on the south side of town (called Batteries A through F), soon joined by an inner ring of five more such batteries, called the College Hill line.

By late summer 1862, the main focus of activity started moving away from Mississippi into Tennessee and northern Georgia. Bragg had replaced Beauregard as overall commander, but he soon moved with his Army of Tennessee to Chattanooga to counter an expected Union move against that transportation and manufacturing center. Van Dorn was given command of the District of Mississippi and moved his headquarters and most of his command southwestward to Vicksburg, while Price shifted his reduced Army of the West into Iuka, Mississippi, to keep an eye on the Union movements east.

There had been several command changes in the Union Army at Corinth as well. Halleck had been recalled to Washington to serve as the latest in a continuing series of unsuccessful commanding generals of all the Union armies, the very position his lieutenant Grant would successfully fill some time later. Grant set about preparing his army to move east into central Tennessee, while the beloved but inept Major General William Starke “Old Rosy” Rosecrans, a divisional commander during the brief siege, took over command of both the Army of the Mississippi and the Department of Corinth.

Iuka

Ordered to prevent any of the three Union armies in Corinth from traveling east to attack Bragg in Tennessee, Price was in a bad position. He had 14,000 men strung across a wide line in northeastern Mississippi, really more of a guard and early-warning force than any significant combat threat; his only reinforcements lay on the other side of the Union positions, several hundred miles away in Vicksburg; and Grant appeared determined to move his armies through his position. Grant was also worried that Price might move his force north to join Bragg and resolved to attack the Confederate force before he could do so. As one might imagine, Civil War–era generals spent a lot of time in their tents worrying, usually about the most unlikely of things. On September 16, 1862, Grant ordered Major General Edward Otho Cresap Ord to take his 2nd Division (Army of Tennessee) and Rosecrans to take his Army of the Mississippi and assault Price’s force in a coordinated attack on the morning of September 19.

The attack at Iuka did not come off as planned, to say the least. Ord’s order to attack at a given time was changed to an order to move in when he heard Rosecrans’s attack start, the intention being to better coordinate the two-pronged assault. Price had learned of Ord’s movement against him from the northwest around dusk on September 18, although not of Rosecrans’s from the southwest, and telegraphed Van Dorn with the news. The Confederate commander ordered Price to pull his troops out of Iuka, join his force now moving out of Vicksburg, and threaten Grant’s armies from Tennessee. As Price’s men moved out of town on the afternoon of September 19, they ran straight into Rosecrans’s force, the Union movement to attack having been delayed by poor navigation skills.

While Rosecrans’s and Price’s troops rapidly deployed and launched into a vicious fight, Ord’s force stayed unmoving on the north side of town. He later claimed that he heard no gunfire all the rest of the day, a claim supported by his command staff, but Grant remained suspicious ever after that he had simply decided to let Rosecrans do all the fighting. This is perhaps one of the better-known examples of a phenomenon known as “acoustic shadow,” where someone many miles away may hear the noise of battle, but someone close in might hear nothing.

Price’s northernmost battlefield commanders had warned him about Ord’s presence, but when he did not join in Rosecrans’s attack, the Confederate commander decided his force was just a ruse to try to get him to split his small command. However, when the Union attack was unsuccessful in breaking his own lines by nightfall, Price decided that, ruse or not, Ord was bound to join in the continued assault the next morning. Just before dawn on September 20 Price led his men safely south out of the besieged town, heading to join Van Dorn’s force bearing north out of Vicksburg. Rosecrans initially ordered his men to pursue, but fearful of getting lost again and facing a strong rearguard action from Price’s men, he soon called off the chase.

The Battle of Corinth: Act 2

With Price and Van Dorn both now safely out of his immediate area of concern, Grant moved north to Jackson, Tennessee, with most of his army, leaving Rosecrans with only four divisions to garrison the town and protect the northern Mississippi supply lines. Van Dorn knew that Corinth was a key town for either side to control and, with most of the Union armies now gone, determined to attack it. On the first of October, the 22,000 men of the combined Confederate armies in Mississippi moved north from their base near Ripley, 22 miles southwest of Corinth, in an attempt to take the fortified town from the northwest and by surprise.

By the very next day, the element of surprise was lost when the Confederate infantry skirmished with Union cavalry scouts at the Hatchie River Bridge on the outskirts of Corinth. Alarmed, Rosecrans concentrated his forces in the strong north and west fortification positions and waited for Chewalla, Tennessee, less than 8 miles from Corinth.

On the early morning of October 3, Major General Mansfield Lovell’s, Brigadier General Dabney H. Maury’s, and Brigadier General Louis Hebert’s divisions burst out of the woods and stormed the northwesternmost line of outer defenses, easily driving in the Union pickets and advancing through the line of works with few casualties. As they dressed ranks again in preparation for assaulting the city’s inner defenses, three small earthquakes shook the ground under them, frightening the men and shattering their confidence. Van Dorn ordered an hour’s halt to give the men time to eat, drink, and rest before what he assumed would be a final assault. This delay only granted Rosecrans the time he needed to strengthen his line of inner defenses.

RENEWED ATTACKS

About noon Van Dorn ordered the men up and in line of battle again, but repeated assaults the rest of the afternoon failed to crack the Union line. At dusk Van Dorn ordered a halt to the battle, and plans were made with his division commanders for the next morning’s assault. Hebert was to lead the attack by a strong assault on the Union right, followed in close order by Maury in the center and Lovell hitting the Union left flank. A predawn heavy artillery barrage was planned to help screen the infantry movements into line and reduce the Union defenses.

At 4 a.m. the Confederate artillery batteries opened up to “soften” the Union fortifications for the assaulting infantry, but they were soon silenced by very effective Union counter-battery fire. Just before he was to move out on assault, Hebert suddenly fell ill and was replaced by Brigadier General Martin E. Green, who wasted a precious hour trying to get reorganized. Maury had started his assault in the meantime, allowing Rosecrans to concentrate his artillery fire and troop strength on his small part of the assault line. For some unknown reason, Lovell never ordered his men to attack.

When Green’s men finally came into line, the two Confederate divisions succeeded in blowing through the Union defenses and into the city itself. At the height of the battle, several brigades managed to fight their way to the rail crossroads in the center of town, while Colonel William P. Rogers led his 2nd Texas Infantry Regiments up and over the ramparts of Battery Robinett, the last line of Rosecrans’s defenses. However, since Lovell had failed to support the attack, Union troops from the south side of the city were able to move forward and hit the Confederates on their flank, violently breaking up the attack. Rogers was killed and his force shattered before they could consolidate their gain. Within two hours the Confederates were forced to withdraw from the city, and Rosecrans once again had full control of his lines. Van Dorn was forced to order a general retreat, which Rosecrans was unable to pursue, possibly out of fear of becoming lost once more.

For a relatively short fight, casualties were staggeringly high on both sides. Rosecrans reported that he had lost 315 killed and 1,812 wounded, with another 232 missing or captured (out of 21,147 engaged) during the two-day battle, while Van Dorn reported a loss of 1,423 killed, 5,692 wounded, and another 2,268 missing and presumed captured (out of his approximately 22,000-strong command). Corinth remained either occupied or under Union control for the rest of the war, and no Confederate army tried again to retake it.

TOURS

Alabama Sites

We suggest a visit to significant Alabama sites as part of a larger tour of the battle areas in Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi; accordingly, we list these areas from east to west, and from the northern part of the state to the southern half.

Scene of a small cavalry raid in 1862, this small town north of Anniston is best known today as the home of Jacksonville State University. Just off the main square next to city hall is the First Presbyterian Church, one of a handful of antebellum structures still in existence in the city. This church, built in 1861, was used as a hospital during and after the short battle here; it is still in use and does not offer formal tours.

In the city cemetery 2 blocks south, at the corner of South Church and Mays Streets, is the resting place of General Robert E. Lee’s “boy artillerist,” Major John Pelham. A tall, well-sculpted statue of the young officer looks west out of the Confederate section of the cemetery (at the very edge of the cemetery, at the cross streets given above). Pelham had resigned from West Point after his home state of Alabama seceded, just a few weeks before he was due to graduate. Assigned to Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Pelham displayed an amazing skill at gunnery, particularly with his fast-moving “horse artillery” battery.

Pelham was a good-looking and rather dashing sort and a favorite of the equally dashing cavalry officer Brigadier General James Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart, who took Pelham along on his many cavalry raids. Officially just a casual observer, Pelham joined in on a mass charge of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry at Kelley’s Ford on March 17, 1863. Struck on the neck by a bursting artillery shell, he was quickly taken to the nearby home of his fiancée, Bessie Shackelford, where he died that same night. He was just 24 years old.

Jacksonville is just off the (very) well-beaten path between Anniston and the shopping mecca of Boaz, about 15 miles north of I-20 (exit 185) on AL 21. Both Anniston and Gadsden, a few miles to the northwest on US 431, have plentiful food and lodging establishments.

The center of the onetime Free State of Winston, this tiny northwest Alabama community was ground zero for the anti-secessionist movement. The center of all this activity was in a roadside stopover, Looney’s Tavern, which stood just outside town. The original building is long gone, but the site has a historic marker and can be found on Winston County Highway 41 about 2 miles north of its intersection with US 278, on the eastern edge of town. This road is very poorly marked; watch for the road sign pointing toward Decatur just before you start into the business district of the small settlement.

This area was seriously pro-Union during the war, as a few known statistics bear out. Not only was the little-known 1st Alabama Cavalry raised in this area (and went on to march with Sherman through Georgia), but an estimated 2,000 local citizens joined this and other Union regiments during the war. Another estimated 10,000 “Tories” lived in northern Alabama, actively assisting Confederate deserters and helping Union raiders. Three thousand of these Unionist citizens met at Looney’s Tavern on July 4, 1861, to draft documents formally protesting Alabama’s secession and to explore ways their county could secede from the state. In the end nothing ever came of the attempt.

Located at an extremely strategic point on the Tennessee River served by the newly built Tuscumbia Railroad (known during the war as the Memphis & Charleston), this small town became an important transportation and supply center during the war. Although the target of both sides as “ownership” changed hands relatively early in the war, no pitched battles were fought in or around the town.

Immediately after the Union victory at Shiloh (April 7, 1862), Brigadier (soon Major) General Ormsby McKnight Mitchel was directed to take a reinforced division of about 8,000 men and take Huntsville and Decatur for the North at his earliest opportunity. This would cut the Confederate supply lines through north Alabama and south-central Tennessee, while providing a good base to use for a planned invasion of Montgomery and Mobile, as well as a nod of protection for the Unionist Tories who populated the surrounding area. On April 12 the lead brigades of Mitchel’s force entered Decatur unopposed and immediately sent out reconnaissance parties farther west toward Florence and Tuscumbia.

The Union kept control of Decatur the remainder of the war, suffering only isolated and brief cavalry attacks on its garrison for the next two and a half years. In late October 1864, General John Bell Hood’s decimated Army of Tennessee camped just outside the city for three days, “making demonstrations” against the Union garrison to keep them bottled up inside the city until the rest of his force had safely passed to the west. It is highly unlikely that he actually sought any battle, which did not come in any stead, as his target was badly needed supplies he expected to find at Tuscumbia.

Decatur is located west of Huntsville, just off I-65. US 72 Alternate connects the town with I-65 at exit 340, about 5 miles east of downtown. Although little military action occurred here, there are three interesting stops in the town.

This two-story brick mansion on the Tennessee River bank was a headquarters for both sides during the war. Local legend holds that General Albert Sydney Johnston of the Confederacy planned his Shiloh campaign here and that, for the Union, General Ulysses S. Grant and Major General William Sherman met here for strategic discussions after the Vicksburg campaign.

A good view of the house can be obtained from the street. Sycamore Street runs north off Wilson Street/US 72 west of the Keller Memorial Bridge over the Tennessee River and just past a small bridge over the railroad tracks.

Built in 1833, this large, impressive Greek Revival building originally housed one of the three first branches of the Bank of the State of Alabama. Legend has it that then President Martin Van Buren attended the dedication ceremony. During the war it served as a hospital and supply depot (which Hood would no doubt have loved to get his hands on) and is reportedly one of only five structures left standing in town after the war. The huge columns gracing the front porch have damage that is claimed to be from some of the Confederate cavalry raids.

Now restored to its bank-era appearance (the state bank system in Alabama died in 1846), the Old State Bank stands on a beautifully landscaped downtown park and is open as a city museum. Hours vary; the staff advises that you call ahead to check. Additional hours are available by request. Admission is free.

Parham’s Civil War Relics and Memorabilia
721–723 Bank St.
Decatur, AL
(256) 350-4018
www.rparhamsrelics.com

This small shop upstairs over an antiques store is a short walk from the Old State Bank and offers an interesting variety of small artifacts for sale, as well as books and modern memorabilia concerning the war. Owner Robert Parham is a local authority on the Civil War era and a good conversationalist; be prepared to stay awhile if you really want to know what happened here!

Some of the larger, better-known “relic” shops we have visited could take some lessons from Parham; he runs a tidy shop with artifacts priced for the average collector, concentrates on his immediate area, and has a refreshing lack of “the very bullet that killed A. S. Johnston” style of labels and identifications.

General Joe Wheeler Plantation
12280 AL 20
Hillsboro, AL
(256) 637-8513
www.wheelerplantation.org

Although most maps point to this location 15 miles west of Decatur as a “town,” it really consists of one thing alone: the plantation and last home of Major General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler of the Confederate Army. Perhaps one of the best combat cavalry officers produced during the war, Wheeler fought primarily with the Army of Tennessee under Bragg, Johnston, and Hood, and commanded what was for all practical purposes the only unit resisting Sherman’s Georgia Campaign of fall 1864. He led his cavalry in more than 500 skirmishes and 127 pitched battles, lost 16 horses shot out from under him, had 36 of his staff officers wounded, and was himself wounded three times. Although he and the equally famous Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest of the South loathed each other, they were both past masters at the art of employing cavalry to disrupt enemy lines of communication. Wheeler went on to a successful postwar career as a cotton planter and U.S. congressman, and during the Spanish-American War, he became the only Confederate general officer to regain his U.S. commission as a general officer.

During the Santiago Campaign (Spanish-American War), U.S. Major General Wheeler commanded the cavalry division that included Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Perhaps showing his advancing age (he was 62 at the time) or just hearkening back to a happier time, upon seeing the Rough Riders storming up Kettle Hill (not San Juan Hill, as is so often erroneously attributed), he allegedly turned to his aide and remarked, “Just look at them! They got the Yankee sons-of-bitches on the run!”

The main house has been restored to its original condition, most furnishings are period and original to the house, and another 13 buildings round out what is a close approximation of a postbellum working plantation. The main house contains a selection of personal and professional artifacts from Wheeler’s long and fascinating life.

The plantation is most decidedly not the easiest place to find; take the four-lane AL 20/US 72 Alternate 15 miles west from the Decatur square, and watch carefully for a historic marker to your left (south) in a small parking lot—it is directly in front of the plantation entrance. There is no sign on the westbound route that we could see (there is one showing the evacuation route for the nearby Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Power Plant!), but there is one on the eastbound side to direct you in. Call ahead to schedule a tour.

This city dates its founding from a year before Alabama even became a state (1818) and was an important trade and commerce center when this was the “western frontier.” Although right smack in the middle of Union offenses aimed at Corinth to the west and Decatur to the east, and violently taken over by both sides several times during the war, it came through the war relatively unscathed. Today it is the home of the University of North Alabama and has retained its status as a trade and commerce center for industrial traffic on the adjacent Tennessee River.

Civil War sites are hard to find in this heavily urbanized city, but it can boast at least one gem of the era.

Originally a stagecoach stop built in 1811 in the middle of a dense wilderness, this small building in the midst of an equally dense urban neighborhood now houses a museum of Civil War–era and early pioneer artifacts. The tavern was used as a hospital for both Confederate and Union troops during and after the local skirmishes and the nearby Battle of Elk River, and as a supplemental hospital for the wounded from the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee).

Better known in modern times for its pivotal role in the civil rights movement, Selma was a very important manufacturing and supply center during the war, with several gun factories, foundries, warehouses, and a large armory. The Selma Naval Works produced rams, including the CSS Tennessee, and during the last two years of the war, nearly half the barrels and nearly two-thirds of the cartridge ammunition used by the armies in the Western Theater were produced here. The small town survived most of the war untouched, due in no small part to its isolated location deep in west-central Alabama.

Selma is about 40 miles west of both Montgomery and I-65, on US 80. Take exit 167 off I-65 on the south side of town, and go west on US 80 for a straight shot to the city.

While almost all of the town was destroyed either during the battle or burned by Wilson’s men as they left a week later, there are a handful of extant structures. Just off US 80 on the north part of town, on Broad Street at the Trinity Lutheran Church, is a marker about the battle and a small section of breastworks, the only remaining part of the line.

John Bell Hood

Of all the hard-luck cases who were living examples of the Peter Principle (that everyone eventually rises to his or her level of incompetence), John Bell Hood tops the list. Hood was born in Owingsville, Kentucky, in 1831 and secured a berth at West Point by virtue of his uncle, congressman Richard French. He graduated after an undistinguished career at the military academy in 1853, ranked 44th out of 52. The custom at that time was to “brevet” newly minted officers (i.e., to give them the rank but not the pay, position, or real responsibility of a certain rank), and Hood was brevetted a 2nd lieutenant and sent to California soon after his graduation. In 1855 he was commissioned in the same rank and reassigned to the 2nd Cavalry in Texas, joining future Confederate and Union generals Robert E. Lee, William J. Hardee, Albert Sydney Johnston, and George H. Thomas. While there, he suffered the first of his many combat injuries in skirmishes with hostile Indians.

With the outbreak of war in 1861, Hood resigned his U.S. commission and was almost immediately granted a Confederate one to the rank of 1st lieutenant. By March of 1862 he had been promoted to brigadier general and placed in charge of the Texas Brigade (soon afterward named Hood’s Texas Brigade, in the fashion of the day), under the overall command of Colonel John B. Magruder at Yorktown, Virginia. Five months later he was promoted to major general and given command of a division in Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s corps, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He developed a reputation there as a gallant and brave fighter, inspiring deep love and devotion among his own men. At Gettysburg, however, an ill-conceived plan forced Hood under protest to charge his division uphill into a well-positioned Union force. His division was decimated, and Hood suffered a crippling injury to his left arm.

After a brief recovery period, Hood traveled with Longstreet west to reinforce General Braxton Bragg’s army, about to engage at Chickamauga, Georgia. In a nearly unbelievable stroke of luck, Longstreet’s corps arrived on the field at the exact place and time a Union brigade had been mistakenly moved out of the way. Longstreet was able to exploit the breach most successfully, but Hood suffered another gunfire wound, this time resulting in the amputation of his right leg. While recuperating, Hood developed an addiction to the painkiller laudanum, which many historians believe led directly to the poor battlefield decisions he subsequently made.

Upon returning to the field, Hood was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of a corps in General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee, just in time for their rolling defense against Major General William T. Sherman’s 1864 invasion of Georgia. Hood ranted against Johnston’s careful hoarding of his strength while slowly giving way before Sherman, preferring the charging attack over the static defense, and said as much in a series of letters to Bragg, then President Jefferson Davis’s military chief of staff, as well as to Davis himself. Davis was equally unhappy with the strategy Johnston had adopted, and on June 17, 1864, replaced him with Hood, with orders to attack Sherman. Three days later he ordered an all-out attack on the Union positions at Peachtree Creek, which failed at the cost of nearly one-fourth of his command. Two days later, after a forced, nightlong march through the city of Atlanta, he attacked Sherman’s positions again, this time on the eastern outskirts of the city. This attack failed as well, and follow-up attempts at Ezra Church on the western outskirts and at Jonesboro to the south accomplished nothing but reducing his available force to less than half its original strength. Forced to abandon the city on September 1, Hood soon led what was left of his army on a hare-brained campaign, designed, he said, to lure Sherman out of the strongly fortified city and north into open ground, where the vastly larger Union Army could be destroyed. More than one grizzled veteran of the Army of Tennessee started saying openly that Hood had gone mad but, as good soldiers, they followed his commands.

This plan resulted in nothing more than making a portion of Sherman’s available force chase Hood all up through northern Georgia before they were recalled to prepare for Sherman’s march to Savannah. Hood concocted another hare-brained plan, this time to storm north through Tennessee, seizing the Union supply headquarters at Nashville, and then continue north through Kentucky, threatening Cincinnati, Ohio, and eventually moving east to join Lee’s army at Petersburg, where they would join forces and crush the huge Union Army commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Davis, very reluctantly this time, agreed to Hood’s idea and allowed him to proceed. Moving through very scattered and light resistance at first, Hood soon ran into a rapidly retreating force at Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30 and ordered the attack with only two of his three divisions in position and only two hours of daylight left. The attack was an unmitigated disaster, with Hood being only 1 of 2 alive and uninjured generals (out of 12) at the end of the fight. Still he pressed on, finally washing the remnants of his army up on the shores of Union ramparts at Nashville in December 1864.

With his army nearly completely destroyed, Hood tendered his resignation quietly, which was wisely accepted. Hood spent his postwar years in New Orleans as a modestly successful businessman and vehemently defended his war record to anyone who would listen—including readers of his own book of experiences, the aptly named Advance and Retreat, and his writings in the monumental Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. His bad luck plaguing him to the end, Hood, his wife, and his eldest daughter died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1879, leaving behind 10 orphaned children.

The courthouse is a large, impressive Greek Revival building well restored and kept up, which was used as a hospital and military school during the war. Now used as a museum, it houses a small but rather impressive collection of Civil War artifacts and antiques, as well as a sample of the goods that Selma’s factories produced for the war effort.

The former Tennessee & Alabama River Railroad depot, nearly destroyed during the battle, has been restored and serves as the Selma–Dallas County Museum of History and Archives. Emphasis is equally divided between Civil War, railroading, and civil rights–era exhibits, and a very nice archival room is available. Additional displays cover the Native American history of the area, WPA murals, and a selection of very rare photos showing African Americans at work on a postbellum local plantation.

A great number of Confederates who died in the battle are buried here in the cemetery’s Confederate section, graced by a large monument. Lieutenant General William Joseph Hardee is also buried here, as is navy captain Catesby ap Roger Jones, executive officer of the CSS Virginia (usually and erroneously identified as the Merrimac) and commander of the ironclad during the fight with the USS Monitor, later commander of the Selma Iron Works. Open during daylight hours.

Montgomery saw no combat during the war, thanks to her position deep in the state well away from the major battle areas, but her position in Confederate lore was established even before the first shots were fired. This was the home of the first Confederate capital, before it was moved to Richmond, Virginia, and the place where President Jefferson Davis took his oath of office. Wilson’s Raid came through and took the city, a transportation and supply hub, without resistance a little more than a week after Selma fell. While this capital city is a large and bustling metropolis, there are a few reminders about the war to be found.

The State Capitol was built in 1851 in a style very similar to the U.S. Capitol. A bronze star mounted on the west portico marks the very spot where Jefferson Davis took his oath of office. Forty-five-minute guided tours are given of the building. Make sure to see the impressive three-story, self-supporting double-spiral staircase built by former slave Horace King, a postbellum legislator. The capitol is open for self-guided tours; admission and tours are free. All guided tours must be prearranged.

The home of Jefferson Davis and his family during the first months of the Confederacy is right across the street from the capitol building and is now restored and open as a museum. The house is furnished with Davis’s own furniture from his home in Mississippi, and the second floor is kept just the way it was when he was in residence. A small collection of Confederate relics and artifacts as well as some of Davis’s personal belongings are on display. Admission is free, but donations are accepted and appreciated.

Mississippi Sites

Corinth is a bit off the beaten path, which in this case is a very good thing—there simply hasn’t been enough “progress” there to erase much of its past. The town is 89 miles east of Memphis, 226 miles southwest of Nashville, 168 miles west of Birmingham, and 218 miles north of Jackson; it helps the traveler to remember that getting there is half the fun! Corinth lies in extreme northeastern Mississippi very close to the Alabama border, at the crossroads of US 72 between I-65 (exit 340) and Memphis, and US 45 between I-40 at Jackson, Tennessee (exit 82), and Tupelo. If you are approaching from the east, we heartily recommend US 72, as it goes through Florence, Wheeler, and Decatur, Alabama—all interesting Civil War–related stops.

Corinth is without a doubt the most Civil War– oriented town we have visited, at least in the Western Theater. Information on its preserved houses, buildings, entrenchments, and museums could literally fill a good-size book. We strongly advise that you contact the Corinth Area Tourism Promotion Council (www.corinth.net) and ask for its excellent package of information before starting your trip.

One of several original and well-preserved earthworks in and around town, this was the one through which Confederate forces successfully assaulted on October 3, 1862. It is a redoubt of the type called a “lunette,” with mountings for four guns and several surrounding infantry rifle pits. Well outside the main part of town, take Smith Bridge Road west across US 45, turn right onto Kimberly Road, and then left onto Davis Street.

Also known as Fort Robinette (or Robinette), the earthworks here were the center of Corinth’s inner defenses and then scene of some of the heaviest fighting. They were rebuilt to the original specifications in 1976. A small park surrounding the earthworks, display cannons, and monuments is open daily from dawn to dusk. There is no admission fee.

While these folks do have a visitor center in downtown Corinth, most of the information they provide can be obtained at some of the venues and attractions as well as a new satellite visitor center on the west side of town at US 45. However, we strongly suggest you call or write them to get their free mail-out package, as this is one of the best presentations we have seen from any city of any size. The devotion this town has to the Civil War historian or traveler is truly astonishing and makes the visit here an absolute must.

The Civil War Interpretive Center once was a small building behind the Curlee House. In July 2004 a $9.5 million, 12,000-square-foot replacement opened its doors, ready to educate visitors about Corinth’s importance during the war. The multi-acre site highlights the 1862 Siege and Battle of Corinth as well as 16 historic landmarks in and around town.

This cemetery was established in 1866 as the 16th National Cemetery, just three-quarters of a mile from the railroad intersection that was the focus of so much of the fighting here. Union dead were gathered here from the battlefields of Corinth, Iuka, Parker’s Crossroads, and some 17 other battle and skirmish areas, as well as hospitals and camps across Mississippi and Tennessee. There are 1,793 known and 3,895 unknown Union soldiers buried in this still-active cemetery, where more than 7,000 veterans of subsequent wars also have been laid to rest. National cemeteries are usually shrines to the Union cause, but this one is unusual: Three Confederate soldiers were buried here, too, just under the flagpole. Admission is free.

This small museum should be your very first stop in town. Although it is quite small physically, this is one of the finest museums of its type that you will ever step into. Largely the result of efforts by Margaret Greene Rogers, this museum relies on its highly knowledgeable and informative staff to supplement the well-laid-out displays of letters, paintings, models, and relics.

The displays themselves are rather eccentric, with a mixture of fossils from the Paleozoic and Cretaceous periods next to Chickasaw Indian relics, which are next to turn-of-the-20th-century photos of Corinth alongside battlefield-dug Civil War relics. A separate room contains a selection of largely 19th-century household items, and a small research room contains a rather impressive amount of local history books and publications, with a heavy emphasis on the Civil War era.

Do not let this eccentricity and the relatively small size of the museum fool you; we fully expected to make this a “10-minute in and out” when we first visited and ended up spending well over an hour just talking with the staff about some of the more unusual items on display. This is most decidedly not the sort of place where you see the same “bullets-’n’-belt buckles” that so many small-town museums seem to have in common (to the point that most are hard to distinguish from one another), and we not only highly recommend a visit here but insist that this is a crucial stop for any visit to the town. Admission is free. Please help this small gem stay open, however, by giving a donation or making a purchase from the unusually small selection of “stuff for sale.”

This 1857 home just off US 45 Business was the headquarters for both Bragg and Halleck and is one of the 16 National Historic Landmarks in Corinth. Central to the campaigns that were waged here, the home also houses the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center on its grounds (see above) and offers tours of its well-restored and elegant interior. Tours are by appointment only, and may be scheduled by calling the house.

ACCOMMODATIONS

There are a few chain hotels and motels, but these tend to fill up on weekends, so be sure to make reservations well in advance. In addition to hotels, there are numerous RV parks and a few smaller lodging establishments.

Franklin Cruise is a restored historic downtown building in the heart of Corinth. The suites are filled with fine antique furnishings, Oriental rugs, full kitchens, and even a washer and dryer. The suites are located above the antiques shop and showroom.

RESTAURANTS

Don’t judge a book by its cover. This corrugated steel building may not look like much, but the food is good and the value is there also. The catfish platter is always a favorite with the locals, but bring an appetite if you order the large platter. You’ll get seven fillets with baked potato, coleslaw, and hush puppies. This family-run, humble establishment is also known for its barbecue and steaks.

DAY TRIPS

The restored last home of the only president of the Confederacy, Beauvoir was the seaside estate of Jefferson Davis. A National Historic Landmark, Beauvoir was built in the mid-1800s, and its 74-acre landscaped grounds and handsome buildings are open to visitors. In addition to the furnished presidential residence, there is a Confederate museum and cemetery where the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate is located. The beautiful grounds contain large oaks, magnolias, pines, gardens, and a lagoon.

It was at this spacious house facing the Gulf of Mexico that President Davis, after his release from a federal prison, wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Here’s an interesting anecdote about Jefferson Davis: According to local legend, Davis was visited at Beauvoir by the Union soldier who had captured him. The man had no money, so Davis loaned him enough to get back home and gave him this suggestion: “If you ever meet any of our boys in want, relieve them if possible.” The Davis family showed their appreciation for Confederate veterans even after Davis died in 1889. His widow refused to sell Beauvoir and the surrounding property to a hotel developer for $100,000; instead she sold it to the Sons of Confederate Veterans for $10,000.

In 2005, Beauvoir and the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina. Many of the outbuildings were completely destroyed, but the house and library have been restored due to the generosity and kindness of donors and volunteers.

In late spring 1864, with Sherman raging through northern Georgia and the entire Confederacy threatened with being cut in half, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest received orders to hit Sherman’s supply and communications lines in Tennessee and try to make him slow down or even withdraw from the Deep South. Moving out of his base at Tupelo with 3,500 cavalrymen, Forrest soon learned that a column of more than 8,500 Union cavalry and infantry under Brigadier General Samuel D. Sturgis was en route from Memphis with orders to stop him. As usual for the fiery cavalry commander, he turned his columns west and made all speed to Sturgis’s force to surprise and destroy him before he was ready for battle.

On June 10, 1864, the rapidly advancing Confederate cavalry encountered the first Union patrols along the Baldwyn Road, about 1 mile east of the small settlement of Brices Cross Roads. Immediately launching into a strong attack, Forrest’s men were upon the Union patrols almost before they had made it back to their main column. Union reinforcements were hastily brought up, but by mid-afternoon the Confederate force had completely smashed the Union lines and sent Sturgis’s command in a panicked rout back to Memphis. The small Confederate command not only took the field and scattered their aggressor, but also managed to capture more than 1,500 Union soldiers!

The Brices Cross Roads site today is a very small park with a single monument and some good interpretive signs, but the drive to the site off US 45 features several roadside historic markers that give a good visualization of the action here. Adjacent to the small historic park is a cemetery containing the remains of 99 Confederate soldiers; all but one are unidentified.

Aside from the usual collection of scattered mobile homes, the surrounding area seems little changed from the war, which adds to the historic flavor. We highly recommend a visit here, which does not add very much to the travel time from Corinth to Tupelo. The grounds are open during daylight hours.

Recently, the nearby town of Baldwyn has opened the Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield and Visitor Center (662-365-3969), on MS 370 and across US 45 from the actual battlefield. The site has a small collection of artifacts, some good displays about the battle, and a very friendly staff.

This small park within the city limits of Tupelo commemorates a rare unsuccessful attack by Forrest against a superior Union force here on July 13, 1864. Although the Union column did withdraw from the area after the three-hour battle and Forrest’s cavalry followed in a sort of low-intensity running battle, the Union force managed to get its column through the area more or less intact (which was their original intention). The grounds are open daily during daylight hours. For more information visit the Parkway Visitor Center at Milepost 266, 6 miles north of the monument.

Other Alabama and Mississippi Battlefields