516

BATTLE NEAR BOYLE'S CREEK.

dispatches informed him that Forrest was now on his front in heavy force; that one of that leader's divisions, under General Jackson, was moving easterly from Tuscaloosa, with all the wagons and artillery of the Confederate cavalry; and that General Croxton, on his way from Elyton, had struck Jackson's rearguard at Trion, and interposed himself between it and Forrest's train. Informed, also, by the intercepted dispatch, that Jackson was about to fight Croxton, and from a subsequent dispatch from the latter to himself, that, instead of going on to Tuscaloosa, he should endeavor to fight Jackson and prevent his joining Forrest, Wilson ordered McCook to move rapidly, with La Grange's brigade, to Centreville, cross the Cahawba there, and push on by way of Scottsville to assist Croxton in breaking up Jackson's column. McCook found Jackson at Scottsville, well posted, with intrenchments covering his column. Croxton had not come up, and he could hear nothing of him. Feeling too weak to attack the Confederates, he skirmished with them a little, burned a factory at Scottsville, and then fell back. He destroyed April 5, the bridge over the Cahawba, at Centreville, and rejoined Wilson at Selma.

1865.

Wilson pushed southward from Randolph with the brigades of Long and Upton, and at Ebenezer Church, near Boyle's Creek, six miles north of Plantersville, he was confronted by Forrest who had five thousand men behind a strong barricade and abatis. Forrest was straining every nerve to reach and defend Selma, which was one of the most important places in the Confederacy, on account of its immense founderies of cannon and projectiles. Wilson advanced to the attack at once. Long's division, on the right, struck the first blow. Dismounting most of his men, he made a charge so heavy and irresistible, that it

broke Forrest's line. Four mounted companies of the Seventeenth Indiana, under Lieutenant White, being ordered forward, dashed over the guns of the foe, into their midst, and cut their way out with a loss of seventeen men. General Alexander, then leading Upton's division, on hearing the sounds of battle, pressed forward, came up in fine order, dismounted and deployed his own brig ade, and dashed into the fight with such vigor, that

the Confederates were routed, and fled in confusion toward Selma, leaving behind them two guns and two hundred prisoners in the hands of Alexander, and one gun as a trophy for Long. Winslow's brigade followed them as * April 1, far as Plantersville, nineteen miles from Selma, where the chase ceased, and the victors bivouacked. Forrest had been driven on that day twenty-four miles.

Selma was now the grand objective of pursued and pursuers. Because of its importance, it had been strongly fortified on its land side.' It lay upon a gently rolling plain, about one hundred feet above the Alabama River, and was flanked by two streams; one (Beech Creek) with high and precipitous banks, and the other (Valley Creek) an almost impassable mire. Toward this the troopers pressed on the morning of the 2d of April, Long's division leading in the pursuit of Forrest, Upton's following. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Wilson's whole force in pursuit, came in sight of Selma, and prepared for an immediate assault. Forrest was already there, and found himself in command of about seven thousand troops, a part of them Alabama militia, gathered for the occasion, composed of raw conscripts, mostly old men and boys. For the defense of Selma, the Confederates had, as Grant said on another occasion, "robbed the cradle and the grave." So inadequate was the force that Forrest was not disposed to attempt a defense, but General Taylor, the commander of the department, who was there, ordered him to hold it at all hazards. Then Taylor left in a train of cars going southward toward Cahawba, and was no more seen. Forrest resolved to do his best, and did so.

After a reconnoissance, Wilson directed Long to attack the Confederate works northwestward of the city, by a diagonal movement across the Summerville road, on which he was posted, while Upton, with three hundred picked men, should turn the right of the intrenchments eastward of the town. Before preparations for this movement could be made, Long was startled by information that Chalmers's Confederate cavalry, from Marion, was seriously threatening his rear-guard, in charge of his train and horses. He resolved to attack immediately. Sending six companies to re-enforce the train-guard, he charged the works furiously with about fifteen hundred of his men, dismounted. In so doing he was compelled to cross an open space, six hundred yards, in the face of a murderous fire of artillery. It was bravely done; and in the course of fifteen minutes after the word "Forward!" was given, his troops had swept over the intrenchments, and driven their defenders in confusion toward the city. The fugitives at that point composed Armstrong's brigade, which was considered the best of Forrest's troops. They were sharply pursued, and at the beginning of the chase, Long was severely wounded, and Colonel Minty took temporary command. Wilson came up to the scene of action at that time, and made disposition for Upton, to immediately participate in the work begun by the other division. At an inner but unfinished line, on the edge of the city, the pursued garrison made. a stand. There, just at dark, they repulsed a charge of the Fourth United States Cavalry. This was quickly followed by the advance of Upton's divi-. sion, and another charge by the Fourth Regulars, while the Chicago Board of Trade Battery was doing noble service in a duel with the cannon of the enemy, two of which it dismounted. The Confederates were dispersed. The elated victors swept on in an irresistible current, and Selma soon became a conquered city. Generals Forrest, Roddy, and Armstrong, with about one

1 The fortifications consisted of a bastioned line of an irregular semicircular form, and nearly three miles in extent. The portion on the western side of the city rested on Miry Valley Creek, and on the eastern side, on Beech Creek and a swamp, the respective ends touching the river. See plan on preceding page.

"The Seventeenth Indiana Mounted Infantry, the One Hundred and Twenty-third and Ninety-eighth Illinois Mounted Infantry, the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, and the Fourth Michigan Cavalry.

518

DESTRUCTION IN SELMA.

half of their followers, fled eastward on the Burnsville or river road, by the light of twenty-five thousand bales of blazing cotton, which they had set on fire. They were pursued until after midnight, and in that chase the Confederates lost four guns and many men made prisoners.1

General Winslow was assigned to the command of the city, with orders to destroy every thing that might benefit the Confederate cause. Selma soon presented the spectacle of a ghastly ruin. Ten thousand bales of cotton, not consumed, were fired and burnt; and all the founderies, arsenals, machine-shops, warehouses, and other property used by the Confederates, were destroyed; and some of the soldiery, breaking through all restraints, ravaged the town for awhile.

Wilson now prepared to move

eastward into

Georgia, by

way of Mont

1865.

RUINS OF CONFEDERATE FOUNDERY.2

gomery. He directed Major Hubbard

to construct a pontoon bridge over the Alabama River, at Selma, which had been made brimful by recent rains, and then he

hastened to Cahawba, the ancient capital of Alabama,' a few miles down the stream, to meet General Forrest, under a flag of truce, by April 6, appointment, for the purpose of making arrangements for an exchange of prisoners. They met at the fine mansion of Mr. Mathews, near the landing, in sight of a large cotton warehouse, on the high bank of the river, from which Wilson, on his march toward Selma, had liberated many Union captives, and which he had set on fire. Forrest was indisposed to act fairly in the matter. He evidently expected to recapture the prisoners Wilson had taken at Selma, and was arrogant in manner and speech. The latter returned; but in consequence of the flood, which had three times swept away the pontoon bridge, 870 feet in length, which Hubbard had

1 Wilson's loss in the capture of Selma was about 500 men. His gains were the important post, 32 guns (all field-pieces, except a 30-pounder Parrott), 2,700 prisoners, including 150 officers, several flags, and a large amount of stores of every kind.

* This was the appearance of a portion of the city of Selma, when the writer sketched it, in April, 1866. It was the site of the great Confederate iron-foundery there.

This was the place where De Soto crossed the Alabama River, on his march toward the Mississippi River, which he discovered in the year 1541.

This gentleman informed the writer that the two officers dined at his house; and after Forrest had eaten his food and drunk his wine, he plundered his plantation on leaving.

See next page.

CAPTURE OF MONTGOMERY AND COLUMBUS.

519

April, 1863

thrown across the river, Wilson's army did not make the passage of the stream until the 10th." McCook had rejoined him on the 5th, and now the whole army, excepting Croxton's brigade, on detached service, moved upon Montgomery, where General Wirt Adams was in command. Adams did not wait for Wilson's arrival; but, setting fire to ninety thousand bales of cotton in that city, he fled. Wilson entered it, unopposed, on the morning of the 12th, when Major Weston, marching rapidly northward toward Wetumpka, on the Coosa, captured and destroyed five heavily laden

steamboats, which had fled up that stream for safety. Montgomery was formally surrendered to Wilson, by the city authorities, with five guns, and a large quantity of small-arms, which were destroyed. So it was that the original "Capital" of the Confederacy of Rebels was "repossessed" by the Government without hinderance, and the flag of the Republic was unfurled in triumph over the State House, where, on the 4th of March, 1861, the first Confederate flag was given to the breeze, when it was adopted as the ensign of the Confederacy by the "Provisional Government," at Montgomery.

Wilson paused two days at Montgomery, and then pushed on eastward toward the Chattahoochee River, the boundary between Alabama and Georgia,-Columbus, in the latter State, ninety miles distant, being his chief objective. At Tuskegee, Colonel La Grange was detached and sent to West Point, at the crossing of the Chattahoochee River by the railway connecting Montgomery and Atlanta, while the main column passed on toward Columbus. That city was on the east side of the Chattahoochee, and when Wilson came in sight of it, in front of the Confederate works, on the evening of the 16th, he found one of the bridges on fire. Upton's division was at once arranged for an assault, and in the darkness of the evening a charge of three hundred of the Third Iowa Cavalry, supported by the Fourth Iowa and Tenth Missouri Cavalry, and covered by a heavy fire of grape, canister, and musketry, was made. They pushed through abatis that covered the works, and pressed back the Confederates. Two companies of the Tenth Missouri then seized another and perfect bridge, leading into Columbus, when Upton made another charge, sweeping every thing before him, and captured the city, twelve hundred men, fifty-two field guns in position, and large quantities of small-arms and stores. He lost only twenty-four men in achieving this conquest. There Wilson destroyed the Confederate ram Jackson,

1 Sketched from a steamboat, in April, 1866.

3 See page 256, volume I.

3 Among the killed was C. L. Lamar, of Howell Cobb's staff, formerly captain and owner of the Wanderer a vessel engaged in the unlawful slave-trade, which was seized a few years before by a Government cruiser, but being taken into a southern port, evaded the penalties of the law.

520

CAPTURE OF FORT TYLER.

which mounted six 7-inch guns, and burned one hundred and fifteen thousand bales of cotton, fifteen locomotives, and two hundred and fifty cars; also a large quantity of other property used by the enemy, such as an arsenal, manufactory of small-arms, four cotton factories, three paper-mills, military and naval founderies, a rolling-mill, machine-shops, one hundred thousand rounds of artillery ammunition, and a vast amount of stores. The Confederates burned the Chattahoochee, another of their iron-clad gun-boats, then lying twelve miles below Columbus.

a

In the mean time, La Grange had pushed on to West Point, April 16, where he found a strong bastioned earth-work, mounting four guns, 1865. on a commanding hill, named Fort Tyler, in honor of its then commander, who built it, and had in it a garrison of two hundred and thirty

o'clock of the day of his arrival; but he was held in check, on the border of the ditch, by a galling fire of grape and musketry from the garrison. This was soon silenced by his sharp-shooters bringing their skill to bear upon the Confederate gunners, which kept them from duty while his men cast bridges. across the ditch. Over these they rushed at the sound of the bugle, swarmed over the parapets, and captured the entire garrison, with the guns, and about. five hundred small-arms. General Tyler and eighteen of his men were killed, and twenty-seven were wounded. At the same time the Fourth Indiana Cavalry dashed through the village, drove the Confederates from their works at the bridges, and took possession of those structures. After destroying nineteen locomotives and three hundred and forty-five loaded cars at West Point, La Grange crossed the river, burned the bridges behind him, and moved on due east toward Macon, in Georgia. On the same day, Minty's (late Long's) division moved from Columbus for the same destination, and Upton's marched the next day. Minty, accompanied by Wilson, arrived at Macon on the 20th, when the Confederate forces there surrendered without resistance; and Wilson was informed by Howell Cobb, of the surrender of Lee to Grant, and the virtual ending of the war. Hostile operations were then suspended, in accordance with an arrangement between Sherman and Johnston, which we shall consider presently.

& April 17.

1 This is from a sketch made by the author, from near the railway, in April, 1866. The fort was upon a hill overlooking the little village that rambled along the railway track.