Battle of Selma - Struggle For Selma

Struggle For Selma

Early the next morning Forrest arrived at Selma, "horse and rider covered in blood." He advised Gen. Richard Taylor, departmental commander, to leave the city. Taylor did so after giving Forrest command of the defense. Selma was protected by three miles of fortifications, which ran in a semicircle around the city. They were anchored on the north and south by the Alabama River. The works had been built two years earlier and, while neglected since then, they were still formidable. The defenses were from 8 to 12 feet high, 15 feet thick at the base, and had a ditch 4 feet wide and 5 feet deep along the front. Before this was a picket fence of heavy posts planted in the ground, 5 feet high, and sharpened at the top. At prominent positions, earthen forts were built with artillery in position to cover the ground over which an assault would have to be made.

Forrest's defenders consisted of his Tennessee escort company, McCullough's Missouri Regiment, Edward Crossland's Kentucky Brigade, Phillip Dale Roddey's Alabama Brigade, Frank Armstrong's Mississippi Brigade, the Pointe Coupee Artillery, General Daniel W. Adams' state reserves, and citizens of Selma who volunteered to man the defenses. The total force numbered less than 4,000, barely half of whom were soldiers. Selma's fortifications had been designed to be defended by 20,000 men, and Forrest's outnumbered defenders had to stand 10 to 12 feet apart to cover their sectors.

Wilson's force arrived at the Selma fortifications at 2 p.m. He placed Gen. Eli Long's division across the Summerfield Road, with the Chicago Board of Trade Battery in support. Maj. Gen. Emory Upton's division was placed across the Range Line Road with Battery I, 4th U.S. Artillery in support. Wilson had 9,000 well-armed and well-trained troops available to make the assault. Wilson's plan was for Upton to send in a 300-man detachment after dark to cross the swamp on the Confederate right, enter the works, and begin a flanking movement toward the center moving along the line of fortifications. Then a single gun from Upton's artillery would fire the signal for an attack by the entire Federal Corps. At 5 p.m., however, the ammunition train in Wilson's rear was attacked by advance elements of Forrest's scattered forces who were moving toward Selma. Long and Upton had both positioned significant numbers of the troops in their rear to guard against such an event. However, Long decided on his own to begin an assault against the Selma fortifications to neutralize the attack in his rear.

Long's men attacked in a single rank in three main lines, dismounted and firing their 7-shot Spencer repeating carbines. They were supported by their own artillery. The Confederates defenders replied with heavy small arms and artillery fire. In one of the many ironies of the Civil War, the Confederate artillery had only solid shot on hand, while just a short distance away was an arsenal which produced tons of canister, a highly effective anti-personnel ammunition. The attackers suffered many casualties, including General Long himself, but the attack continued. Once the Union troops reached the works, vicious hand-to-hand fighting broke out. Many on both sides were struck down with clubbed muskets. Still, Union troops kept pouring into the works. In less than 30 minutes, Long's men had captured the works protecting the Summerfield Road from the hopelessly outnumbered defenders.

Meanwhile, General Upton, observing Long's success, ordered his own division forward. Soon, U.S. flags could be seen waving over the works from Range Line Road to Summerfield Road. Once the outer works had fallen, General Wilson himself led the 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment in a mounted charge down the Range Line Road toward the unfinished inner line of works. The retreating Confederate forces, having reached the inner works, rallied and poured a devastating fire into the charging Union column. This stopped the charge, and sent General Wilson sprawling to the ground when his favorite horse was wounded. Wilson quickly remounted his injured horse and ordered a dismounted assault by several regiments. Mixed units of Confederate troops at the Selma railroad depot and the adjoining banks of the railroad bed tried to make a stand next to the Plantersville Road (present day Broad Street). Fighting there was heavy, but by 7 p.m. the superior numbers of Union troops had allowed them to flank the Southern positions, causing the defenders to abandon the depot as well as the inner line of works.