The Battle of Selma was fought on April 2, 1865, during Wilson's Raid, a Union campaign through Alabama and Georgia in the final full month of the American Civil War. This engagement was part of a larger strategic operation by Union forces to advance southward and disrupt Confederate military capabilities and infrastructure in the Deep South during the waning stages of the war.
Brevet Major-General James H. Wilson commanded approximately 13,500 Union cavalry troops organized into three divisions, having departed from Gravelly Springs, Alabama on March 22, 1865. Wilson's force was opposed by Confederate Lieutenant-General Nathan B. Forrest. Before reaching Selma, Wilson's cavalry encountered Forrest's forces in a running battle at Ebenezer Church on April 1, 1865, which Wilson won skillfully. Upon approaching Selma, Wilson divided his command into three separate columns to attack the well-defended city from multiple directions simultaneously.
The Union columns successfully broke through the Confederate defenses at separate points, forcing the Confederates to surrender the city of Selma. However, the battle resulted in the escape of significant Confederate leadership, including Lieutenant-General Nathan B. Forrest and Lieutenant-General Richard Taylor, along with many of their officers and men. This engagement represented a significant Union tactical victory that furthered Wilson's campaign objectives through Alabama during the final month of the Civil War.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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