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| An officer who escaped from Libby brevet Brigadier-General A. D. Streight General Forrest received the thanks of the Confederate Congress when he captured General A. D. Streight, at that time colonel of the Fifty-first Indiana and commanding a provisional brigade, near Rome, Georgia, May 3, 1863. Colonel Streight had been ordered to make a raid into the interior of Alabama and Georgia to destroy railroads and supplies. He started from Nashville April 10th, proceeded to Eastport, Mississippi, and reached Tuscumbia, Alabama, April 24th. General Dodge was to have detained General Forrest, but failed. Streight's command was mounted on mules borrowed from the wagon-trains or impressed from the country, and many of his men were unused to riding. From Tuscumbia he went to Moulton and then to Dug's Gap, where he ambushed some of Forrest's men, wounded his brother, W. H. Forrest, and captured two pieces of artillery. After another skirmish on Hog Mountain, in which the Confederates were repulsed, he proceeded to Blountsville, Alabama, and then toward Gadsden. All of this time there was continuous skirmishing in the rain, and much of his powder became worthless. He attempted to reach Rome, Georgia, but Forrest overtook him and the force was surrendered May 3, 1863. There was much excitement in the South over this raid into the interior of the Confederacy, which was one of the earliest made, and also much indignation over the capture of Negroes for enlistment. The command was charged by the Confederates with many atrocities. The men were soon exchanged, but the officers were kept in prison at Richmond. Colonel Streight and four of his officers escaped from Libby Prison with 105 other Union officers by means of a tunnel dug by Colonel Thomas E. Rose and a few associates, on February 8, 1864. |
