Forrest's execution of deserters
on Sipsey River

by Scott Owens.

On March 29, 1865, Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, accompanying the division of Brig. Gen. W. H. Jackson on its march from West Point and Columbus, Miss., to Tuscaloosa, Ala., crossed the Sipsey River over a bridge. Two deserters were apprehended by the provost at this point, which were presented to Forrest himself. The general convened a drumhead court-martial, which found the two guilty. Forrest ordered immediate execution by firing squad, after which the bodies were laid out beside the road near the bridge while the columns passed. He then ordered a detachment to be posted at the bridge to watch for other deserters (covering two ferry crossings near the bridge, and naming the same), executing any such individuals in a like manner at the bridge. The bodies of those executed, and presumably any others shot, were to be buried near the bridge two days after the sentence had been carried out.

Just *where* this happened is a matter of some controversy. It is my opinion that this took place in southern Pickens County, based on a dispatch from the Engineer Office in Columbus to Forrest's headquarters (OR, Ser. 1, Vol. 49, Part II, pp 1126-1127) that the route of march of Jackson's division was from Columbus, Miss., to Pickensville, Ala., to Bridgeville, Ala., (called "Bridgeport" in the engineer's dispatch, an easy mistake since a place by that name on the Tennessee in north Alabama was frequently contested), to "Lanier's Mill," beyond which the roads diverged, and the engineers carefully marked the different directions for troop movement: one road went to "Tuscaloosa," and the other to "Pleasant Ridge, Clinton, Eutaw," where the later troops would cross the Warrior at Finches Ferry. Having established that "Lanier's Mill" was one and the same as "Jordan's and Lanier's Sipsey Mills" quite near Pleasant Ridge and some one hundred yards from a crossing known then and at least as late as 1920 as "Sipsey Mills Bridge," and the mentioning of Pleasant Ridge as near by the road to Finches' Ferry, all argue for this location. Further, published reminisces, by individuals who saw the bodies and were privy to the details of the circumstance, place this incident specifically at this particular location. Additionally, Forrest's dispatch order about the disposition of the bodies and securing of the crossings (OR, Ser. 1, Vol. 49, Part II, p 1172), dated March 29 and written at "Sipsey Bridge," specifically names one ferry as Colter's, there being a ferry location known on Sipsey in Pickens County a short distance from Sipsey Mills Bridge.

However, there is a tradition in Tuscaloosa County which places Forrest, the court-martial, and the execution at "Moore's Bridge," a bridge crossing over Sipsey, near a community in northwest Tuscaloosa County known by that name to this day. Prior to 1921 local legend held that late in the war, just before the battle of Selma, two deserters were tried and shot by Forrest's order, who was personally at the scene. The graves of the condemned were marked and maintained by members of the community until after WWI. In 1921 an article appeared in the Sunday, January 2 issue of the "Tuscaloosa News and Times Gazette," written by none other than that venerated Tuscaloosa historian Thomas P. Clinton (another notable publication by Mr. Clinton was his oft-referenced 1904 treatise on Croxton's Raid). In this article Clinton states that Forrest marched with his staff from Columbus to Pickensville, and cites eyewitnesses who observed him between these places on March 28, 1865. Then Clinton states the general camped "below" Pickensville, which I take to be south of, but then Mr. Clinton speculates that Forrest took the road to Carrollton, at which place he rode over and bent down an oak sapling, which had by 1913 become a mighty tree, in front of the Phoenix Hotel in Carrollton, this seeming to be proof that Ole Bedford rode through the Pickens County seat. There is a Pickens County tradition which places Forrest at the Phoenix Hotel, but when and under what circumstances I cannot remember, not now being able to locate the reference. I do seem to recall that there was a suggestion that Forrest either stayed in the hotel or made his headquarters there for some period. This would seem to place the general at Carrollton on another occasion rather than this forced march to intercept Wilson. Forrest, it has been recalled by a former employee at the Phoenix Hotel, and recorded, did stay at the Hotel after the was when he was traveling through the area to raise support for the railroad he proposed building. It was on this occasion, this informant states, that Forrest rode his horse over an oak sapling which later grew into a rather remarkable shaped tree.

Mr. Clinton further speculates that Forrest then rode to Reform, Gordo, and then north at "Ashcraft Church" past the "road to Kennedy" and on to Moore's Bridge. It would seem to me that if Forrest had gone through Gordo crossing Sipsey over the Shirley Bridge on the Upper Columbus Road, then the Confederate courier route between Columbus and Tuscaloosa, would have been the quickest and most convenient. I suspect that Mr. Clinton's guess about the route of march was entirely to accommodate the traditions in the Moore's Bridge community.

Both locations cannot be right, separated as they are by thirty-five miles as the crow flies. Convinced as I am that the Pickens County location is correct, but confronted by a strong tradition of two deserters being executed at Moore's Bridge with two graves which apparently were well-known locally (which I would like to see), I must conclude that two unfortunates DID die by gunshot at Moore's Bridge during the War, and that they were buried close by. I wonder if it were not at the hands of home guards, which were also active in apprehending deserters at this time. 'Twould seem that locals who had perpetrated this deed while serving as home guards might find it convenient to ascribe this incident to the actions and orders of General Forrest, rather than admitting to having killed these two poor fellows on somewhat less authority than a drumhead court-martial.