Battle of Chehaw Station
Monday morning, July 18, 1864, Union commander Major General Lovell H. Rousseau sent units of his force as far west as Chehaw station- north of Tuskegee- to act as a blocking force as well as to destroy the railroad by working their way back toward Loachapoka. This was a major rail link between Montgomery and Atlanta, for the Confederate troops. Other units were dispatched in the opposite direction toward Auburn.
At the same time as the action at Auburn, the Fifth Iowa, Eighth Indiana, and Fourth Tennessee Union Cavalry were sent to Chehaw Station in Macon County. A force of 500 Confederate troops had been rushed into the area by train from Montgomery. The vast majority of Confederate forces at Chehaw Station consisted of 16 and 17 year old boys from eight companies of H.C. Lockhart’s Battalion. There were also 50 University of Alabama cadets who had been on furlough, and conscripts from Camp Watts in Notasulga. Rousseau sent in the Union forces to destroy part of the West Point and Montgomery Railroad that ran between Loachapoka and Notasulga. The Fifth Iowa Cavalry initially engaged the Confederate force. Armed with only old muskets, the Confederates put up stiff resistance before having to fall back to the safety of a ravine. The Fifth Iowa was then reinforced by the Eighth Indiana and flanked the new Confederate position to force a withdrawal. Rousseau reported Confederate causalities as forty dead and wounded in the engagement. |
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