The Alabama Experience; Pages from The Civil War in Alabama

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been to pittsburgh has been there's been things it's impossible to tell the story of the civil war and alabama and one short program instead what we'll do is describe a few events including perhaps the most dramatic cavalry raid of the antiwar so let's go back to the beginning the southern states believe they have the right to secede from the union there are confederate informal government gets its start right here in alabama the first thing we had to decide was where this thing ought to be senator who has to put it together and how is going to be done and interestingly enough almost encouraged all of the people involved even politicians behind the secession of the service and the state seemed to agree that montgomery alabama was the ideal place to set up at least a convention to form the new government

and perhaps afterward the place to be the capital of the new nation in part because montgomery was centrally located on the maine who are putting this new nation ever tried to appeal to everybody that location because well she answered the sessions took them several days before that first injury provisional constitution but when you consider how little time they have is really a pretty good job training because you organized a lot easier chaidez jack cocktail party

so to speak one early spring evening in nineteen sixty one a consensus is reached among some confederate representatives legislators to the day this is going to be their man the next day he wins the roll call vote and basically the government in the war on least on paper all the well of the confederate government was giving itself and business oversee montgomery was dealing with the issue of suddenly being loved place those in the eyes of the world are making sixty one of the typical small provincial state capital in the south there with eighteen sixty one the coming of all these delegates there were newspaper reporters from far away as london and showing up to watch and report on what was happening to this young nation the owners of the most prominent leaders of society open their doors to all of the politicians there with an endless round the party so i think it's always

very festive on top of that was the militia unit started showing up to form an inclusive government is a constant sound of gunfire the damage to commerce and really enjoyed having the capital and almost from the very moment when it first showed up there were questions asked about whether or not lebanese should be the permanent government now a standard that states seceded to enter the confederates by far the most important the minute the genesis sued and the minute the union started to form a large army whose intent to invade the south to put down the rebellion that was evident that that army to get anywhere had to march first through virginia so virginia was going to be most immediately the seawall and confederates and probably rightly thought that their capital uk to be somewhere close to where the army is going to be most in operation

and that no rich it was as if someone had pulled the plug from a vast empty almost overnight davis got on a train up in the middle of the night and i went into a few days with virtually everyone involved in this town that had been a bustling center of world attention and overnight by a somnolent the peaceful community journalism staggering from all the attention to them alabama itself stay on the brink of internal so many northern and wire grass counties remain loyal to the union but the rich plantation counties mostly politically another forcing them or counties to go along with this war that tension between rich and poor counties between secessionist a unionist between alabama and some flavoring for freedom or slavery was never greater than worse and mount mckinley to the ridge tenn we're going to probably what is referred to as the cockpit of the

war in the west half of the battles fought the civil war the most were fought in virginia a second after that tennessee and all those that spillover on and for alabama so where in that area in northern alabama on through which is one of the most hotly contested the tennessee valley was important because rivers where the interstate highways in addition the major railroads connected memphis on the mississippi with chattanooga and the rest of the southern heartland four successive confederate defeats allowed union forces to penetrate the tennessee valley which literally the panic about real strings in east central kentucky where a minute for henry on the tennessee river about a week later which in effect not the confederacy much intensity pried open the key to what has been called the heartland and then it the battle of

shiloh liedtke within a few weeks of some oxygen steam up in tennessee and the cameraman and once they got there they would never go back to china reporter many times the result was often anarchic paving the way for ambitious outlaws like tom clark the people of northern alabama so talk about the civilians that suffer tremendously women and children enemy and we could not go well not only from clothing to switch well in an out of the syrians and their entire time that we had a severe problem with her now the walls are

short men he joined the confederate army and thirty and then joined a union on endangered and became the elating bloodthirsty control of the whole area not like what you have a duty you realize that all the man or gone there when i mean the rest of what love would be easy prey for him and he did for a oh no the population well the things that he did were word save in a horrible story concord always ragged they'd never run over him so when the authorities parliament needed something funny and buried him in the street out there now everybody runs over afterward wrote was sure they aren't overcome park to do candidly if they're with a shorter won the ocean area things are

not much better when the army's were around soldiers on both sides routinely requisitioned food and livestock from civilians which is a polite way of saying mexico in some cases the trigger was even worse take the case of i think you know the only elegant as elaine chao well happens all about that subject your eyes wander in and as well in a joint return a profit driven off and the army of the czar and reprisals practice day as union soldiers

as i turned my top of the various orders license what happened because you're pretty terrible destruction rape robbery which are shared challenged or for the fact that it was so rare his own man turn him in and there was official court martial and he was found guilty and promoting in the spring of eighteen sixty three union cavalry colonel cable straight set out with twenty five hundred mounted industry across north alabama who attacked a rail head of rome georgia his route taken across them out in the country and union sympathizers would scream is march it was a good plan so someone decided straits man should be mounted on new rules which were necessary across the great mountains of alabama except that

there aren't any great man better all can you hadn't like our election and the millions in the horses used to writing to his thick hair and when you have to break new rules as well as then use them by troops who aren't used to writing much of anything i had some pretty serious mistake enter nathan bedford forrest acting on orders for shows up the town creek the morning of april twentieth he engages union general grenville dodge in and all the artillery until he learned from a scout's the twenty five hundred iraqis are moving east twenty miles away wary of being fine arts council thousand man and at midnight one of the great cavalry adventures of whistleblowers on the work the next day two straight lines are not knowing is being pursued by confederate cavalry they pass an alternate know now only a few hours behind straight

not only are the rebels getting up with yankees they're all by themselves stores disciplined pursuit tickled jumbled odd since they also watch director describes his dad died was ryan abbott well it was a great part of the rise and then most of them and just four miles straight phyllis's ms greig and then the bridge across the next

morning straight his outlook for the year forrester's even their peers with guards right here along the old a lot of that relied on the first man through the gap is so forth is there a fourth brother he's wanted when he shot by all colleges nationwide or sing right after the oil straight starts an orderly retreat every july

advising moving things that are large part of the red guard and forcing the federal civil war ended forty four for faculty vote and they also avoid a slow lizza for work vandals entered and sat at dusk straight wheels among some of those tiny apartment course you'll see that white ash oh right well various areas on top two day

wednesdays called one by ten am april thirtieth street we just launched laughter fighting for thirty hours without sleep so far however have a tactical advantage by the time it reaches possible here that we've been putting half of all the others have continued to press very tricky for a strategy is not without risks while it's a basic principle of your command together in this case bye bye for years he says the army's

history and race forget i'm blacker three crosses force remembers the bridge last things he says but that's far it's very uncertain now his commanders forrest rights out there there's been a science and one of the barons of the confederacy and she will come out in their view and form forests that she'd know or that even his commander crossed so he will as a nation has a rolls sweeper up on the horse the heart

and she will guide him to where he can cross its kind for her bravery emoticons a celebrity strangers right and ask for a lox of her hair the confederate congress promises or six hundred forty acres of land she never gets the land at sixteen she marries a soldier after the war she moves to texas dying in nineteen oh six and never returning to alabama all night may first all they may second farce keep pressuring straight by now straight commanders down to twenty mules on my third straight passes through here see your book on his way to gail still wary of trying to set up one last line of defense straight man and now exhausted straight still fails to say the odds are in his favor dr robert ford

but for as hobble even preventable one time he said that the balkan war in iran we'll find acceptance rate is pretty well this airport will now play the game lady had was of course and for his lower level commanders that what he would like to do is have careers come up announcing that so and so you know it had arrived on the front end in an exasperated voice he would say i don't have room for them on the front and send that person away journey fourth lunch bucket controller jill me anything coming through today the analogy he knew he would also have as artillery only two pieces of which had managed to make it to the fire it would have them come to action front and then

tried them for violating the truce send them off they would change horses reappear action front he'd send them off and before long straight would be convinced he had any number of candidates and in fact this apparently of what happened because this story as it goes it's straight looks of arson says name of god man how many guns have you got strait is a good soldier and a proud man still doubting forest actual strength he refuses to surrender forest and really breaks off negotiations strike captain point of belarus the man tell him we still killing whales were very there and the rest of late great staff virgin bit with the fine

and i was along this road about four miles east of cedar bluff but the weary yankees surrendered that there are going to learn later than fourteen hundred and sixty six of them have surrendered to fewer than four hundred veterans are a psychology plays a master hi record time you take the number of yankee catcher or any other inventors more yankees an even so jackson for a position very well right but what he did was he convinced straight to surrender head and go out into the field and then he showed how many many head straight apparently demanded to have his gun back and that they should fight about his man to which of course parsons supposedly replied ah colonel don't you know all is fair in love and war but the trifle

perhaps the best canon of war on either side what made it so much hidden deep in the confederacy coastal and furnace is a tentative briar field selma was the arsenal of the deep south connected by rail east and west and by rivard immobile selma was safe from yankee raves until the very end the most harmful as numbers is not remember sharon not amend that road with forest but those that roe would james harrison was and the last days of march eighteen hundred and sixty five was an early rabbits praise alabama with almost eighteen thousand men almost all of

our car art or slowly in addition to the hills of north alabama who really had their objective is to bring forth is why pittsburgh of the last one he makes his approach to selma wilson detaches croxton with fifteen hundred men on a raid west out of eleven on the way clarkston destroys the tannehill works capturing tuscaloosa he burns the university of alabama meanwhile wilson has come upon farms on this burst for at ebenezer sure that we are running fight the next day late afternoon force the dictator and the earth works covering selma face attack by wilson's sell a local law

requires claims mr gregory the end is near as the yankees close the door on alabama's port city of people recall battle of mobile bay is a naval battle the union took the water but never the lam until those last weeks when it was finally after the tenacious defense of america citi spoke to the commanders there everyone rather slipped away and out of the city than seventeen and hands but that was a navy between sixty five some weeks after surrendering and lincoln himself had been assassinated for blake the last land defensive moby away falls to a superior landing force for black troops on may fourth that's a true now twenty six days after lisa renders general richard taylor son of presidents zachary taylor brother in law to jefferson davis formally surrenders all

troops in alabama mississippi and eastern louisiana even then it's not over three weeks later of gainesville bedford far surrenders the last rebel army east of the mississippi alabama has allowed to rejoin the union some thirty seven months later the union troops continue to occupy the state for years after that this reconstruction period brings about decades of social and economic turmoil and alabama it is it's b it has been there's bad things

for a videotape of this program send a check or money order for twenty five dollars to the university of alabama center for public television po box eighty seven thousand tuscaloosa alabama three five four eight seven or use your visa discover or mastercard by calling one eight hundred four six three eight eight to five