General Wilson Destroyed Selma

From "Selma; Her Institutions, and Her Men" by John Hardy, pub. 1879:

While matters were going on thus on the outside, it would be well for us to look on and see what was taking place on the inside. Gen. Wilson’s visit was expected for ten days, but the confederate forces were so scattered over the country, and especially the cavalry part of it, that to center a force at Selma was utterly impossible. Gen. Forrest’s forces had been reduced to a mere handful, and really, the only reliable force in reach was Gen. Armstrong’s numbering only about fifteen hundred. There were a large number of boom-proof officers and stragglers in the city, upon whom little reliance could be placed. But on Saturday it was determined that the place should be defended. Everybody who could walk was called upon to go the breast-works, with whatever arms could be procured. Squads of armed men were traversing the streets, and examining various building for solders to go to the breast-works, sparing nothing that wore pantaloons, and by Sunday, 12 o’clock, there were collected in the ditches, around the city, about four thousand persons, not more than two thousand of them reliable, to meet a force of nine thousand of the flower of the Federal army, and equipped in a manner unexampled in the history of ancient or modern armies. Gen. Dick Taylor let the city as fast as a steam engine could carry him, about 12 o’clock Sunday, leaving the command of the city divided between Gens. Forrest, Adams and Armstrong, and as the latter had the control of really the only force in the fight, was gallant enough to meet the invaders at the point of the first attack, on the Summerfield road, and Long’s division felt the result. A large number of the women and children had been sent out of the city. A number of the quartermasters, too, had gone with their supplies, mostly to Meridian. The assault was made, and no one who comprehended affairs could doubt the result. The Federal forces, with the flush of victory, entered the city in the hour of night, and terrible scenes of plunder and outrages were witnessed in every direction.

At the breast-works, the Confederates fought with all the vigor their arms and experience allowed.

About 10 O’clock Sunday night, the first house set on fire was the three story brick building on the corner of Water and Broad streets, the third story of which had been used by the Confederates for a year or so, as guard house for Union men and skulkers from the confederate services. It was said this house was set on fire by a man by the name Gibson, who had been imprisoned in it. From this house others along Broad street took fire, and were consumed. Next day the Arsenal, the Naval Foundry, and all places of manufacture were set on fire by an order from General Winslow, Commander of the post, in charge The fire continued to rage until about Tuesday night, by which time the city was nearly destroyed. During this time there was scarcely a house in the city, either private or public, but what had been sacked by the Federal Soldiers. The small contents of private stores were most wantonly destroyed, and by Friday morning there was but little of any kind of property left in the place. The 27,00 prisoners, comprising almost every man in the city, were huddled together in a large stockade just north of the Selma and Meridian railroad track, on the east of the Range Line road, near where the Matthews cotton factory now stands. This stockade was built and had been used by the Confederates. In this pen, in which a dry place scarcely large enough for a man to lay down could not be found, were the prisoners dept until Saturday morning, when they were all paroled and allowed to go wherever they pleased or could. On the 6th of April Gen. Wilson met Gen. Forrest at Cahaba, for the purpose of arranging for an exchange of prisoners, but no definite arrangement was evicted. On the 9th, Wilson’s forces commenced evacuating the place by crossing the river on pontoons, and by the 10th his entire force had succeeded in crossing the river. Thousands of negroes had flocked to the Federal camps, of all ages and sex, and after crossing the river four regiments were organized out of the able bodied black men in around the federal camps. Gen. Wilson, In speaking of these regiments said "that in addition to subsisting themselves upon the country, they would march thirty-five miles in a day, and frequently forty." About four hundred wounded Federal soldiers were left behind in Selma, all huddled together in the different stories of the present hardware store of John K. Goodwin.

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