CELEBRATIONS FOR GENERAL FORREST AT FLORENCE

March 28, 2009 by angela
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THE CELEBRATIONS FOR GENERAL FORREST AT FLORENCE

Dr. William L. McDonald

September 22, 1864, was a red letter day for the citizens of Florence. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most popular figures in the South, was given a hero’s welcome by the war-weary town. This celebration occurred in spite of a threat by Union General William T. Sherman to burn Tuscumbia and Florence if Forrest used the Shoals as his launching base for raids into Tennessee.

Forrest was moving toward Middle Tennessee. Most of his cavalry arrived in Cherokee on September 19. The mounted troops swam the river near Smithsonia while the artillery, ordnance, and wagons crossed on flatboats near Woodland. Forrest and his staff arrived in Florence on the 21st. His men made camp two miles west of town.

The next day, in typical Forrest fashion, the General astride his favorite mount, King Phillip, led his long column of men and horses through downtown Florence. This parade entered the city from the west by way of Gunwaleford Road and West Tennessee Street. Proceeding north on Court Street which was partially disfigured by burned out buildings, they turned east at Mitchell’s Corner. From here they continued their line of march to the intersection of Circular Road (now Nellie Avenue and Grady Liles Drive) where they headed out the Huntsville Road. Along their route on Tennessee and Court Streets they were cheered by crowds of women, children, and old men who had gathered to see the parade. Private John Milton Hubbard, Company E., 7th Tennessee Cavalry, was here on leave. Years later he recalled this event in his biography: “To have stood on Mitchell’s corner that day, as I did, would mark an event in a life otherwise filled with adventure.”

At Shoal Creek Forrest was joined by an additional 1,500 of Brigadier General Phillip Roddey’s Brigade. Now with a force of about 4,500, Forrest headed east to Athens to begin his raid into Tennessee.

The Federal commands at Athens and Pulaski had already been alerted of Forrest’s presence. Colonel George Spalding was ordered to proceed to Shoal Creek from Pulaski with his U. S. 10^th and 12^th Tennessee Cavalry. On the way he ran into Confederate Colonel Jacob B Biffle’s 9^th Tennessee Cavalry about three miles southeast of present Loretta, Tennessee. Here on September 22 the two commands clashed at James M. Powell’s Grist Mill. Moving south the next morning, Spalding managed to capture three of Forrest’s supply wagons along with five men near Green Hill. Now aware of Forrest’s presence and intentions, Spalding rushed back to Pulaski to sound the alarm.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel John B. Minnis was dispatched from Athens with his U. S. 3^rd Tennessee Cavalry. Approaching Rogersville on September 23 with 300 men, he found himself cut off at the Huntsville Road. He barely escaped by taking the Snake Road which led to another ford across Elk River in Limestone County. A few days later Minnis surrendered 1,000 men, along with 700 small arms, two pieces of artillery, three ambulances, sixteen wagons, and 300 cavalry horses to Forrest a few miles north of Athens. These prisoners, plus another 931 that had been captured in Athens, were sent back to Cherokee by way of the Bainbridge Ferry, an early river crossing at the modern Kendale Gardens Subdivision east of Florence.

Forrest’s raids into Tennessee were cut short in late October by the plans of General John Bell Hood to invade Tennessee and Kentucky. This brought the famous cavalry hero back to Florence on November 14. On that same evening he was serenaded by the Tennesseans in Hood’s Army on the grounds of the stately mansion, Courtview, which is now a part of the campus of the University of North Alabama.

Thus, the legacy of Nathan Bedford Forrest at Florence includes times of festivity during bleak years when its people had little to celebrate.

The Civil War Tales of the Tennessee Valley

Bluewater Publications – Heart of Dixie Publishing

http://www.heartofdixiepublishing.com/williamlindseymcdonald.htm

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