Alan J. Pitts
Re: Civil WAr in Perry Co. Ala.
Mon Jul 23 11:22:12 2001


The only fighting in the area mentioned in the Official Records would have been during Wilson's Raid. The dates would fall between the destruction of the furnace at Briarfield near Montevallo on March 31 and the capture of Selma on April 2, 1865. Actions are on record at Randolph and Ebenezer Church (on Alabama Hwy. 189 in Bibb County) on April 1, 1865. There is an article about it in Alabama Historical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4 (1964), "The War Comes to Central Alabama: Ebenezer Church", by John Kent Folmar. Forrest killed the last of several Federal adversaries in hand-to-hand combat here:

"Captain Taylor of the Seventeenth Indiana recognized Forrest, made for him and assailed him so fiercely with a shower of saber strokes aimed at his head and shoulders that for a moment it appeared he would kill Forrest. However, the Confederate leader managed to spur away sufficiently to turn and shoot him from the saddle. Speaking of it a few days later with his arm still in a sling, Forrest commented, 'If that boy had known enough to give me the point of his saber instead of its edge, I should not have been here to tell you about it.'"

I believe there was another action at Dixie Station or Plantersville after the fall of Selma which involved members of the 4th United States Cavalry. The 4th U.S. website includes the following statement:

About the time of the capture of Selma, it lost a dashing young officer, Lieut. Elbridge G. Roys, who while in command of a party of scouts was surprised by Forrest's body guard and he and several men were killed and many were wounded.