[
521]
La Grange rejoined the main column soon after its arrival at
Macon, but
Croxton's brigade was still absent, and
Wilson felt some uneasiness concerning its safety.
All apprehensions were ended by its arrival on the 31st,
after many adventures.
We left
Croxton not far from
Tuscaloosa, in Alabama, on the 2d of April, outnumbered by
Jackson, of
Forrest's command.
1 From that point he moved rapidly to
Johnson's Ferry, on the
Black Warrior, fourteen miles above
Tuscaloosa, where he crossed that stream, and sweeping down its western bank, surprised and captured
the place he had been sent against from
Elyton, together with three guns and about fifty prisoners. Then he destroyed the military school and other public property there, and leaving
Tuscaloosa, burned the bridges over the
Black Warrior, and pushed on southwesterly, to
Eutaw, in Greene County.
There he was told that
Wirt Adams was after him, with two thousand cavalry.
He was not strong enough to fight them, so he turned back nearly to
Tuscaloosa, and pushing northeastward, captured
Talladega.
Near there he encountered and dispersed a small Confederate force.
He kept on his course to
Carrollton, in Georgia, destroying iron-works and factories in the region over which he raided, and then turned southeastward, and made his way to
Macon.
With his little force he had marched, skirmished, and destroyed, over a line six hundred and fifty miles in extent, in the space of thirty days, not once hearing of
Wilson and the main body during that time.
He found no powerful opposition in soldiery or citizens, anywhere, excepting at a place called
Pleasant Ridge, when on his way toward
Eutaw, where he had a sharp skirmish with some of
Adams's men, then on their way to join
Forrest.
The attack was made by
Adams, first upon the Sixth Kentucky Cavalry.
The Second Michigan gave assistance, and finally bore the brunt of the attack, and repulsed the assailants with considerable loss to the
Confederates.
Wilson's expedition through
Alabama and into
Georgia, was not only useful in keeping
Forrest from assisting the defenders of
Mobile, but was destructive to the
Confederates, and advantageous to the Nationals in its actual performances.
During that raid he captured five fortified cities, two hundred and eighty-eight pieces of artillery, twenty-three stand of colors, and six thousand eight hundred and twenty prisoners; and he destroyed a vast amount of property of every kind.
He lost seven hundred and twenty-five men, of whom ninety-nine were killed.
The writer visited the theater of events described in this chapter in the spring of 1866.
He arrived at
Savannah from
Hilton Head2 the first week in April, and after visiting places of historic interest there, left that city on an evening train
for
Augusta and farther west.
Travel had not yet been resumed, to a great extent.
The roads were in a rough condition, the cars were wretched in accommodations, and the passengers were few. The latter were chiefly Northern business men. We arrived at
Augusta early in the morning, and after breakfast took seats in a very comfortable car for
Atlanta.
It was a warm, pleasant day, and the passengers were many.
Among them the writer had the pleasure of
