A small engagement at Black Creek between Confederate and Union troops was the only skirmish here during the days of the war. It was here that Emma Sansom led Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest across Black Creek, enabling him to overtake Col. Able Streight near Cedar Bluff and force his surrender.
An event unfolded here, however, during the days of 1864 that almost turned this small town into a major battlefield between the Blue and the Gray.
It was on the morning of Oct. 20, 1864, that an advance detachment of the 8th Alabama Calvary of the Confederate Army crossed the Coosa River on the old ferry near the present site of Broad Street and pitched camp on the block bounded by Broad, Second, Third and Chestnut Streets. At that time, the block was a large, wooded area. The residents of the town were shocked to see these members of the Confederate Army arriving for no apparent reason and without warning.
The following morning, pontoon bridges were thrown across the river at Gadsden and Hokes Bluff, and a huge army began to cross the river and move into the area. By nightfall, an army totaling more than 33,000 troops camped within the Gadsden City limit. This friendly "invading" army was commanded by Gen. John Bell Hood, who made his headquarters in the old First Baptist Church that stood on the corner of Fifth and Broad streets where the Center for Cultural Arts is now.
Hood, in his official report, said Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalry joined his army just before it reached Gadsden. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard joined them in Gadsden to discuss Hood's plan to invade Tennessee. The three generals met for two days at the First Baptist Church to make final the plans for this campaign.
While Hood, Wheeler and Beauregard were in these planning sessions, the combined army, now totaling more than 40,000 troops, was getting two days of much-needed rest as well as supplies and a major boost to the soldiers' morale. The campfires could be seen for miles in every direction.
After the distribution of the quartermasters stores, the huge army was ready once again to march on toward the north and Nashville, Tenn., to attempt to break the Union supply lines.
With bugles blasting and a chorus of rebel yells, the huge army began its long march to Gunter's Landing, then north to Tennessee and a major defeat where several thousand of those brave men lost their lives fighting for a lost cause.
This army, along with its generals, was not aware of the disaster narrowly avoided at Gadsden.
While the Confederate generals and their staffs were meeting in Gadsden, Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his 70,000 plus troops were marching toward Gadsden with all intentions of fighting a main engagement in or near here. Sherman was as close as Cedar Bluff in nearby Cherokee County when he decided to end his pursuit of Hood and his Confederate troops. Sherman decided to turn his troops elsewhere and allow Hood to be dealt with in Tennessee.
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was ordered to join Hood at Gunter's Landing, now Guntersville, but he did not receive these orders in time. All of the army did come together near Florence and marched on to Franklin, Tenn., where it met a major defeat. For a brief two-day period back in October 1864, the Gadsden area was the home of a great army. This army brought a war very close to home to the small village of Gadsden - a war that had seemed so far away.