(There was also a Confederate 1st
Alabama Cavalry.) The majority of the
unit’s men were Alabamians. The com-
mander of the 1st Alabama, George E.
Spencer, a New York-born lawyer, was
serving as a captain on the staff of Union
General Grenville M. Dodge when he
requested a transfer to the 1st Alabama
Cavalry Regiment. He was granted the
transfer and promoted to colonel.
Various Union commanders, including
Sherman, complimented the men of the 1st
Alabama on their scouting ability. Their
prowess as merchants of terror was recog-
nized by both friend and foe. Union
Colonel Oscar L. Jackson, commander the
63rd Ohio Regiment, said that the
Alabamians “behave like robbers and
marauders,” and in his diary he recounted
a dispute with a 1st Alabama cavalryman
who had entered a house intending to pil-
lage and rob it. According to Jackson, the
man was throwing out the contents of a
bureau while the home’s women and chil-
dren were frightened and crying. Jackson
ordered him to stop. “This cavalryman,”
said Jackson, “answered me a little short
when I spoke to him and as he passed me I
helped him out the door with my boot.”
The behavior of the 1st Alabama as it
made its way to Milledgeville, Georgia, led
Union Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, whowas apparently unaware that Sherman had
ordered the 1st Alabama to burn the coun-
tryside, to write Spencer: “The major-gen-
eral commanding directs me to say to you
that the outrages committed by your com-
mand during the march are becoming so
common, and are of such an aggravated
nature, that they call for some severe and
instant mode of correction. Unless the pil-
laging of houses and wanton destruction of
property by your regiment ceases at once,
he will place every officer in it under arrest,
and recommend them to the department
commander for dishonorable dismissal
from the service.”
Union Maj. Gen. Ormsby Mitchel like-
wise complained in a report to Washington
that lawless vagabonds and brigands con-
nected with his army were “committing the
most terrible outrages—robberies, rapes,
arson, and plundering.” Mitchel said he
was not responsible for these outrages
because, since his line of posts extended
more than 400 miles, he could not give per-
sonal attention to all his troops. Where he
was, everything was in perfect order. Else-
where, robberies, rapes, arson, and plun-
dering took place. He asked for the author-
ity to hang the perpetrators.
The risk to a Southerner who donned a
Federal uniform of blue was illustrated by
the capture of two companies of the 1stMiddle Tennessee Cavalry, which was
raised in North Alabama. Acting as guides,
these companies and some of the 1st
Alabama’s men accompanied Colonel Abel
Streight on one of the most inept raids of
the Civil War. His men unwisely mounted
on balky mules, Streight crossed North
Alabama with Confederate general Nathan
Bedford Forrest in hot pursuit. Forrest
caught up with them near Rome, Georgia,
and many of Streight’s men could not be
awakened to do battle with the Confeder-
ates. Then, hoodwinked by Forrest into
believing he was outnumbered, Streight
surrendered to a much smaller force.
Alabama Governor John G. Shorter
demanded that the Alabamians captured
by Forrest be turned over to his state to be
tried for treason. They were, he com-
plained, guilty not only of levying war
against their state, but of instigating slaves
to rebel and of committing rapes and
destroying property. They could not claim,
as could citizens of border states remain-
ing in the Union, that they were subject to
the conflicting claims of hostile govern-
ments. They had voluntarily and openly
betrayed their state. Therefore, they were
not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of
war. Union Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton, who viewed Shorter’s demand asABOVE: Union Colonel Abel Streight, left, led a
contingent of mule-mounted Southern Union-
ists ingloriously captured by Nathan Bedford
Forrest. Colonel George E. Spencer, right, led
the notorious 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment.
RIGHT: Southern Unionists gather in a darkened
room as one man keeps watch from a window
for passing Confederates. Tennessee, North
Carolina, and Virginia were home to the largest
populations of pro-Union Southerners.Continued on page 98Q-Spr16 Southerner v Southerner *Ads_Layout 1 1/14/16 12:35 PM Page 20