Day's Gap
Sand Mountain
Civil War Alabama

American Civil War
April 30, 1863

Union Colonel Abel D. Streight led a provisional brigade on a raid to cut the Western & Atlantic Railroad that supplied General Braxton Bragg's Confederate army in Middle Tennessee.

From Nashville, Tennessee, Streight's command traveled to Eastport, Mississippi, and then proceeded east to Tuscumbia, Alabama, in conjunction with another Union force commanded by Brigadier General Grenville Dodge.

On April 26, 1863, Streight's men left Tuscumbia and marched southeast, their initial movements screened by Dodge's troops.

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 at Crooked Creek (April 30), Hog Mountain (April 30), Blountsville (May 1), Black Creek/Gadsden (May 2), and Blount's Plantation (May 2).

Forrest finally surrounded the exhausted Union soldiers near Rome, Georgia, where he forced their surrender on May 3.

Result(s): Union victory, although the raid ultimately failed.

Location: Cullman County

Campaign: Streight's Raid in Alabama and Georgia (1863)

Date(s): April 30, 1863

Principal Commanders: Colonel Abel Streight [US]; Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest [CS]

Forces Engaged: Men from 51st Indiana Infantry, 73rd Indiana Infantry, 3rd Ohio Infantry, 80th Illinois Infantry, and 1st Middle Tennessee Cavalry [US]; three regiments [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 88 total (US 23; CS 65)


Confederate Military History of Alabama: Alabama During the Civil War, 1861-1865
Alabama became the fourth state to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861, and Montgomery became the first capital of the Confederate States when members of the first seven states to secede gathered there to form a new government. The port of Mobile was a haven for blockade runners up to the closing of the port in 1864, and one of the last battles of the war was fought at Fort Blakely on April 9, 1865. In the defense of the Confederacy, Alabama raised sixty-five infantry regiments and battalions, five cavalry regiments, and sixteen artillery batteries. More than thirty-five general officers, including the author of this volume, Joseph Wheeler, came from Alabama

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Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.