Wetlands Edge
Environmental Center
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Decatur, more than most other Southern cities, truly lived between the lines during the War Between the States. Its streets and buildings changed hands at least eight times during the four year long conflict. Many Decatur residents were opposed to succession when the war began, but when Northern armies marched in they found themselves under often oppressive occupations. That sparked creation of local Confederate units by Southerners chagrined at having their homes beyond enemy lines. Decatur became a Union outpost early in the war because of its strategic position on the southern bank of the Tennessee River and at the junction of two important railroads. It was later transformed into a Union fortress at the edge of Confederate territory after General William T. Sherman realized the city's occupation would be a thorn in the side of the South. |
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Fortress Decatur became a staging point for Yankee raids deeper into the state and a rallying point for Northern Alabama unionists who came through its lines to sign up and put on blue uniforms. Decatur was a strategic point for the South, too. The Confederate Army of Tennessee retreated through Decatur in March 1862, rallying beside the railroad bridge en route to the Battle of Shiloh. During periods when Decatur was free of occupation it became an important point for gathering food and grain from Middle Tennessee for Confederate armies. And, like Atlanta, which was burned by Sherman as he headed for the sea, Decatur's residents were turned out of their homes and much of the community destroyed by Yankee soldiers to create a clear field of fire around their lines. |
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Decatur's importance drew some of the leading military commanders fromthe North and South to its streets. Union generals Grant, Sherman, and Dodge were here as were Confederate leaders Albert Sidney Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Bell Hood, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Confederate President Jefferson Davis even passed through, both en route to Montgomery and the presidency of the Confederacy and en route home to Mississippi after being released from a Northern prison in 1867. Former slaves in Morgan county organized into the 106th U.S. Colored Infantry, and became some of the nation's first black troops, too. And as much as Decatur shared in the broad tapestry of the conflict's causes and conclusions, it also shared in the peace. Parallel streets still immortalize commanders from both sides, marching across the community like old soldiers. Grant and Sherman Streets, and Lee, Johnston, and Jackson Streets, were laid out in 1887 when another wave of Northerners came South to join in building a New Decatur. More than a century later the streets still symbolize the reunification that came with peace. |
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