Alabama Civil War Timeline
March 22, 1865
22,000 Union Troops Depart Gravelly Springs, Alabama to Attack Alabama
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
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
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.