Today I drove down to Elkmont, Alabama in hopes of locating the site of the battle of Sulphur Branch Trestle, where my 2nd and 3rd great grandfathers were both captured by Forrest's cavalry in September of 1864. Even though the area was hit just yesterday by what were likely the most devastating series of tornadoes in Alabama history, the day today was gorgeous- all blue skies and sunshine. The town of Elkmont was without power but otherwise undamaged, and I found the site with no problem, the former railroad tracks now converted into a hiking trail as part of the "Rails to Trails" project. The site is located about 1.5 miles below Elkmont, and the trestle has long since been replaced by a major earth-fill.
Sulphur Trestle was also the inspiration for one of my favorite short stories- "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" that was written by Ambrose Bierce when he was stationed at the site in 1862. The hike to the site is easy and beautiful.
Below is a summary I've put together of the battle itself. As always, if there are any errors or comments, please let me know-
In the fall of 1864, the war was going badly for the south. Atlanta had fallen to Sherman on September 2, and he was using the city as a staging point for his devastating campaign across Georgia that would later come to be known as his “March to the Sea”. Sherman relied heavily on southern rail lines to move men and supplies into Atlanta from points to the north. However, one southern cavalry regiment, commanded by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, continued to play havoc with the North’s crucial supply lines across southern Tennessee and northern Alabama and Mississippi. Throughout that fall and into the winter of 1865, Forrest, a prodigious military tactician whose cavalry movements were later studied and implemented by Rommel in the deserts of North Africa, seemed to be everywhere at once; attacking small garrisons and destroying prominent railroad lines.
One such railroad, the Decatur and Nashville line, was a major conduit for moving Union troops and supplies to Atlanta and to Union positions at Chattanooga. Heavy fortifications and blockhouses had therefore been built along its route to ensure safe passage for the trains. On September 24, 1964, Forrest and his cavalry moved against fortifications at Athens, Alabama and captured the entire garrison without much difficulty. His forces then moved north along the railway toward a strategic point in the line known locally as the Sulphur Branch Trestle, located a little over a mile below the town of Elkmont.
The trestle itself was 73 feet high and over 400 feet long, and spanned a deep gorge between two ridgelines through which flowed the small creek for which it was named. It was guarded by a large fortification roughly 300 feet squared at its southern terminus, as well as by two blockhouses at either end of the bridge. This gave the troops stationed there, most from the U.S. Colored Infantry, a commanding sweep of the entire valley.
As soon as Forrest's presence in the area became known, the 9th Indiana and 3rd Tennessee Cavalries arrived at Sulphur Branch Trestle to reinforce the garrison there. The 3rd Tennessee, comprised primarily of 300 mounted soldiers from East Tennessee, was under the command of Colonel Minnis. Two of the cavalrymen of the 3rd were Green Simpson and his son, John H. Simpson; my 3rd and 2nd great-grandfathers, respectively. They had mustered into the Union army together at Knoxville two years earlier.
Upon arriving at the trestle on the morning of the 25th, Forrest ordered his cavalry under Colonel Kelly to attack the outer pickets and skirmish lines of the Union troops to drive them back into the fortification. My great uncle, John Moore, recalled that John Simpson (his grandfather) used to talk about hearing the "awful rebel yell" of the confederates as they charged down the valley toward their picket lines. The Union lines were quickly overrun by the confederates, one of the horses stepping down on John Simpson and crushing his hip. He was summarily taken prisoner as many of his fellow soldiers were driven back up the hill toward the main fortification.
During this initial cavalry attack, Forrest had moved his artillery to a number of heights that surrounded the garrison and subsequently began a devastating barrage on the Union fort. Because the fort sat at a lower point than the confederate artillery positions, the bombardment was tantamount to "shooting fish in a barrel". After the initial artillery attack was complete, over 200 Union troops lay dead within the walls of the garrison, with "relatively few wounded, so complete was the devastation". The fort's commander had been killed early on in the bombardment, and Colonel Minnis, gravely wounded himself, had assumed command and was now left to accept Forrest's terms. The trestle, blockhouses and fortifications were burned; the men taken prisoner. The officers were transferred for later parole; the enlisted men were sent south, most bound for internment at Cahaba prison camp (Castle Morgan) near Selma, Al. Probably the most disturbing element of the capitulation was that the surviving Union infantry, almost exclusively African American and most having likely been born as free men, were now sent south as slave labor to work on earthworks around Mobile.
Many of the men captured here and imprisoned at Cahaba would later perish in the explosion of the Sultana steamship on the Mississippi River in April, 1865. Even without the addition of these eventual losses, the battle of Sulphur Trestle remains the bloodiest battle of the war fought on Alabama soil.
