It was in 1863 that an advance detachment of the Eighth Alabama Cavalry, unawares to the denizens of the quaint little village of Gadsden, crossed the Coosa River in the old ferry boat near the foot of Broad Street and pitched camp by the block bounded by Broad, Second, Third and Chestnut Streets.
The next morning pontoon bridges were thrown across the river here and at Hokes Bluff and that night 33,000 Confederate soldiers camped within what is now the corporate limits of the city.
It was the largest group of its kind ever to assemble here. It was what was left of the Army of the Tennessee that had fought under Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh in 1862; under General Braxton Bragg in Kentucky and Tennessee in 1863; under General Joseph E. Johnston from Chickamauga to Atlanta in 1864.
It was here on a swing around from Atlanta to Nashville in a final desperate effort to regain control of the southern central lines from which it had been driven inch by inch, by the federal army of invasion, commanded by U. S. Grant, and from Shiloh to the “Battle Above the Clouds” on Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga by General Sher man in his march to the sea.
This Alabama Cavalry was commanded by General J. B. Hood who made his headquarters in the old First Baptist Church which stood at the northwest corner of Broad and Fifth Streets, later the site of the Princess Theatre and Mary Harden Cultural Arts Center.
The campfires of Hood’s watch-worn, dust-begrimed, foot-sore and battle-scarred veterans blazed from Coosa River to Black Creek and beyond.
Reduced in numbers by disease, by wounds and by death on a hundred or more battlefields that made Southern shivery immortal, the spirit of this grand army was unbroken.
Forty-eight hours of rest the distribution of quarter master stores, the cooking of three days rations and Hood’s intrepid army was again on the march to Nashville and the jaws of death to thousands.
The reminiscence comes like a dream but it is history. Veterans of that army located in Gadsden after the war was over. Some of them belonged here originally. Their tales of hardships and the heroism of their comrades were heard with awe and unbounded admiration.
Women and children who saw that army were also good sources of stories. One was about the theft of the bell and the communion service of the Baptist Church by soldiers and their re- turn as ordered by General Hood.
Some romances developed that were common knowledge then. There is nobody left who mingled with those grand soldiers during that encampment. It is all a matter of history now.
Contact The Vagabond at dkcrown@bellsouth.net
