It was with great difficulty that we managed to feed ourselves and our horses through those trying months of bleak winter.
In the ranks, where men had never shirked a duty or a danger, the sad story of our lost cause was already forewritten in our suffering hearts; and the hopelessness of our situation became so fixed in the soldiers’ minds that desertions became frequent; and in order to check this and enforce discipline, our commander resorted to stern measures, to the extent that some of the deserters were executed and their bodies conspicuously displayed as a warning.
While crossing the bridge at Tuscaloosa, Ala., I witnessed one of these tragic and morbid spectacles, which made a lasting impression upon my youthful mind and embittered my heart against all wars.
Late in March the Union Army began to move southward from Eastport, and General Forrest’s first interest was to ascertain the enemy’s plans as far as possible.
I was with a scouting troop when we luckily intercepted and captured a Union courier carrying the plan of the Union commander’s line of march. This message was sent to each of the division commanders.
They were ordered to move into South Alabama in three columns, marching parallel to each other, twenty miles apart, and to consolidate at a point north of Selma, Ala.
We speedily sent this information to General Forrest, then in the vicinity of Tuscaloosa, Ala.
General Wilson had 10,000 or 12,000 veteran troops of all arms, while Forrest had about 5,000, and only half of that number were of his veterans; but we had the advantage of being on our native heath, and our leader had never been beaten in a single case when he was in supreme command of all dispositions and details of the battle.
With their plans in hand, he sent General Chalmers to meet the extreme eastern division and General Jackson to take the middle division, while he would personally direct the movement against the western column, nearest Tuscaloosa, in the hope of defeating it and then falling upon the rear of the main column.
But this was not to be. When Forrest was ready for the move, he sent a courier to the Selma garrison and to Roddy’s cavalry, with full information of the whole plan; but the enemy captured the courier, and General Wilson changed his plan, and Forrest never knew why until after the war.