Alabama Civil War Timeline: March 22, 1865

Alabama Civil War Timeline

March 22, 1865

22,000 Union Troops Depart Gravelly Springs, Alabama to Attack Alabama 

 

Major General James Harrision Wilson
Major General James Harrision Wilson

Maj. Gen. James Harrison Wilson, U.S. Army, assembled the largest cavalry force ever massed in the western hemisphere. Wilson commanded the Cavalry Corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi, attached to Union Major General George H. Thomas’s army.

Five divisions totaling 22,000 camped from Gravelly Springs, Alabama westward to Waterloo, Alabama. Wilson made headquarters a mile east of the springs at Wildwood plantation, the boyhood home of Alabama senator and governor, George Houston. After intensive training Wilson’s Cavalry crossed the Tennessee to invade South Alabama and Georgia.

Largest Cavalry Force Ever Massed in the Western Hemisphere

Union Brig. Gen James H. Wilson
Union Brig. Gen James H. Wilson

Maj. Gen. James Harrison Wilson, U.S. Army, assembled the largest cavalry force ever massed in the western hemisphere. Five divisions totaling 22,000 camped from Gravelly Springs westward to Waterloo, Alabama.

Wilson made headquarters a mile east of the springs at Wildwood plantation. After intensive training Wilson’s Cavalry crossed the rain-swollen Tennessee River to invade South Alabama and Georgia.

Sketch of the Camp of the Cav. Corps, M.D.M. extending from Eastport Miss. to Gravelly Springs, Alabama
Sketch of the Camp of the Cav. Corps, M.D.M. extending from Eastport Miss. to Gravelly Springs, Alabama

 

 

Wilson split his men into three divisions that were to proceed in three separate columns in order to mask his intentions and confuse Confederate Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest and conceal the intended target, Selma Alabama.

 

 

Wilson’s 1865 Raid stages at Gravely Springs