10 



ALABAMA. 



weakened in the minds of the people of southern 

 Alabama. Their views of the measures de- 

 manded at the time, to promote the success of 

 their cause, were expressed in ft series of reso- 

 lutions adopted at a large and enthusiastic meet- 

 in- assembled in the theatre at Mobile, on Feb. 

 1 !tli. These resolutions declared an unalterable 

 j)iirjM>se to sustain the civil and military author- 

 it ies in their efforts to achieve independence 

 of the United States; that the battle-cry hence- 

 forth should be, " Victory or death ; " that there 

 was no middle ground between treachery and 

 patriotism ; that they still had an abiding con- 

 fidence in their ability t6 achieve independence ; 

 that the government should immediately place 

 one hundred thousand negroes in the field; that 

 reconstruction was no longer an open question ; 

 that an order reinstating General Joseph E. John- 

 ston in command of the Army of the Tennessee 

 would effect more to restore confidence, increase 

 the army, and secure the successful defence of 

 the State, than any other order that could be 

 issued from the war department. 



Meanwhile the preparation of the Federal 

 Government for an irresistible attack upon the 

 important places yet remaining unoccupied in 

 the State, were pushed forward. A combined 

 military and naval expedition against Mobile 

 was in progress at New Orleans, to be com- 

 manded by Maj.-Gen. Edward R. S. Canby and 

 Rear- Admiral Henry K. Thatcher ; and a caval- 

 ry expedition, under Maj.-Gen. J. H. "Wilson, was 

 ready to cooperate by a southern march from 

 Eastport, Tennessee, the headquarters of Maj.- 

 Gen. Thomas. As early as March 3d, the Gov- 

 ernor of the State, T. H. "Watts, appealed to 

 the people by proclamation, to come forward 

 voluntarily to the conflict, or the State could 

 not be successfully defended against the im- 

 pending dangers. The militia of the State, 

 under an act of the Congress at Richmond, had 

 been divided into two classes. The first class 

 was composed of boys between sixteen and sev- 

 enteen years of age, and men between fifty and 

 sixty years. The second class consisted of those 

 of intervening ages, and had, by the acts of 

 Congress, been reduced to a very few, so that 

 united with the Confederate troops they were 

 insufficient for defence. The first class was 

 estimated at thirty thousand in number, of 

 whom about four thousand were boys ; under 

 the operation of the State laws this class could 

 not, without their consent, be ordered beyond 

 the limits of their respective counties. To them 

 the Governor now made an appeal. He urged 

 as motives for action, the rejection of all peace 

 propositions by the authorities of the United 

 States. He said : " We must either become the 

 slaves of Yankee masters, degrading us to 

 equality with the negroes, subjecting us and 

 our children and our children's children to a 

 ry worse than Egyptain bondage, or we 

 iin^t. witli the IK-IP of God and our own strong 

 arms and brave hearts, establish our freedom 

 and independence." 



He also urged that a common fortune would 



befall all alike, if they were overcome, saying : 

 " It matters not now what were your opinions 

 at the time Alabama seceded from the United 

 States. We are all now placed on the same 

 footing. All have, in some form, participated 

 in the war. We have sent to the bloody field 

 of battle our sons, our fathers, or our brothers ; 

 we have equipped them for the conflict; wo 

 have sustained them by our acts ; we have en- 

 couraged them by all the powers of language, 

 by our smiles and our tears, to fight for all that 

 freemen prize or freemen hope. We have all 

 taken part in electing to the presidency, to the 

 governorship, to Congress, and to our State 

 Legislatures, those who have sworn to support 

 the Constitution and the cause of the Confed- 

 erate States. In every form in which mankind 

 can be bound in law and morals, we have all 

 been, and are still, involved in maintaining the 

 Confederate States as ' free, sovereign, and in- 

 dependent.' Our lives, our property, protection 

 to our wives and children, our liberty and honor 

 are staked on the result of the war. Common 

 weal or common woe awaits us all. The fate 

 of the traitor and the tory ever will be, as it 

 ever has been, to deserve and receive the exe- 

 cration of the living and the curses of posterity." 

 The Federal military movements portended 

 nothing less than the complete subjugation of 

 the State. On the 20th of March Gen. Canby 

 and Admiral Thatcher were below Mobile with 

 an irresistible force, and on the same day the 

 advance of General Wilson began, and the 

 whole force was on the way from Chickasaw 

 on the 22d. The success of these expeditions 

 has been described elsewhere (see ARMY OPER- 

 ATIONS), but the desolations of war which fol- 

 lowed the footsteps of the cavalry, were thus 

 subsequently related by the Provisional Gov- 

 ernor Parsons, to an audience in New York 

 city. 



It will be in your recollection, ladies and gentle- 

 men, that during the last of March and in April, the 

 rebellion suddenly collapsed. At that time public 

 attention in the North was doubtless turned mainly 

 to the operations around Richmond, and to those 

 which attended the movements of the vast armies of 

 General Sherman. But it also happened that General 

 Wilson, with a large force of cavalry, some seventeen 

 thousand, I believe, in number, commenced a move- 

 ment from the Tennessee River and a point in the 

 northwest of the State of Alabama, diagonally across 

 the State. He penetrated to the centre, and then 

 radiated from Selma in every direction, through one 

 of the most productive regions of the South. 



That little city of about ten thousand inhabitants 

 its defences were carried by assault on one of the 

 first Sunday evenings in last April, sun about an 

 hour high. Before another sun rose, every house in 

 the city was sacked, except two ; every woman was 

 robbed of her watch, her ear-rings, her finger-rings, 

 her jewelry of all descriptions, and the whole city 

 given up for the time to the possession of the soldiers. 

 It was a severe discipline to this people. It was 

 thought necessary by the commanding General to 

 subdue the spirit of the rebellion. 



For one week the forces under General "Wilson 

 occupied the little town, and night after night, and 

 day after day, one public building after another 

 first the arsenal, then the foundry, each of which 

 covered eight or nine acres of groiiud, and was con- 



