The Battle of Day’s Gap
The Battle of Day’s Gap, fought on April 30, 1863, was the first in a series of American Civil War skirmishes in Cullman County, Alabama, that lasted until a battle on May 2nd, known as Streight’s Raid.
The Battle of Day’s Gap Commanders
Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest
Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led the Confederate forces.
Colonel Abel Streight
Commanding the Union Forces.
Library of Congress
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Commanding the Union forces was Col. Abel Streight; Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led the Confederate forces.
Col. Streight left Nashville for Eastport Mississippi and then east to 
Skirmishes and Engagements
Nathan Bedford Forrest
On April 30, Confederate Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s brigade caught up with Streight’s expedition and attacked its rearguard at Day’s Gap on Sand Mountain.
The Federals repulsed this attack and continued their march to avoid further delay and envelopment. Thus began a running series of skirmishes and engagements:
Crooked Creek (April 30)
Hog Mountain (April 30)
Blountsville (May 1)
Black Creek/Gadsden (May 2)
Blount’s Plantation (May 2)
Finally, on May 3, Forrest surrounded Streight’s exhausted men three miles east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama, and forced their surrender. They were sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Streight and some of his men escaped on February 9, 1864.
Andrew Wills Gould
The battle also led indirectly to the death of Confederate Lieutenant A. Wills Gould, an artillery officer of questionable competence who left guns behind to be spiked by Union forces. Gould was furious with Forrest’s decision to transfer him to another command and fought an impromptu duel with him on June 14, 1863, in which Gould was killed.