One of the major cities to fall in Alabama was Huntsville. This strategic city was left unprotected by the Confederacy and was a prime target of the Union led forces of General Ormsby Macknight Mitchel. The Union believed if they could secure Huntsville they would be able to disrupt the Confederate supply train that ran along the Memphis-Charleston Railroad. Huntsville citizens were a mixture of slave-owners and manufactures. This diverse group desired to have a government that would protect their wealth and to continue to ensure the stability of their city. They understood the implications that succession would have on the economy of their city. However, once secession took place Huntsville inhabitants helped financed to the Confederate …show more content…
The citizens were awakened to find their city over taken by Union forces, who had found no resistance at all. As the Cincinnati Gazette describe it, “Never in the history of any military movement, was surprise so complete.” The occupation would last the entire duration of the civil war. When Mitchell secured the Memphis and Charleston Depot, he sent a telegram to Secretary of War, “We have at length succeeded in cutting the great artery of railway intercommunication between the Southern States.” . The city suffered little destruction as its primary use by the Union was for communication and a place for Union troops to stay. General William T. Sherman, for example, was housed at the Bibb-Beirne home on Williams Street. Mrs. Williams D. Chadick played a vital role during the occupation of Huntsville by the Union forces. On the morning of the Union invasion, she approached General Mitchell’s headquarters and arranged for the release of wounded Confederate soldiers into the care of the inhabitants of Huntsville. Mrs. Chadick recorded events of the occupation in her diary which gives insight to how the citizens responded to the Union occupation. She stated in her diary, “Truly our town is full of the enemy. There is a sentinel