May 1, 1865

Among the final Civil War skirmishes in Alabama was a mission by Union Gen. Benjamin Grierson to wipe out Confederate supply points in the southern part of Alabama. The capital of Montgomery had fallen on April 12, 1865, and there were still pockets of resistance. Grierson’s contingent took Eufaula peacefully in late April, but still had some unfinished business.

Alabama’s governor, Thomas Hill Watts, had fled Montgomery and was on the run. Grierson’s unit took him into custody on May 1, 1865, in Union Springs, halfway between Montgomery and Eufaula. By the time Watts was released, he was forced to sell most of his holdings to pay debts. Watts practiced law and waged legal fights against Reconstruction until his death in 1892.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Thomas Hill Watts was Alabama’s governor from 1863 until the end of the Civil War in 1865. A successful lawyer and planter in Montgomery during the 1850s, Watts opposed secession but served in the Confederate Army after the outbreak of the Civil War and was appointed attorney general of the Confederate States of America. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.