Interior Redoubt No. III

By 6pm General James H. Wilson had moved the 4th U.S. Cavalry down Summerfield Road through the outer works and had ordered Captain Robinson of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery to do the same. After the main assault, most of the regiments of Long's 2nd Division had lost unit cohesion, and their commanders lay wounded or dead. Mixed Confederate units fell back to a second defense line along the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad track, where one stronghold was Interior Redoubt No. III. Wilson decided that the fleeing Confederates needed one strong push, and in one of the last cavalry charges of the Civil War, the 4th U.S. Cavalry drew sabers and charged the redoubt in a column of fours. By this time No. III was bristling with guns, and the attack was stopped as it hit the railroad tracks. Wilson, riding his favorite horse Sheridan, was thrown to the ground when the horse was shot, but unhurt he called for reinforcements for a second charge. The 4th Michigan Cavalry formed dismounted east of Summerfield Road about 330 yards from the railroad track, the 3rd Ohio Cavalry mounted formed west of the road, and the 17th Indiana formed to their right. Captain Robinson's 10 pound Parrots about 1,100 yards away then shelled the redoubt, and about 6:30 pm this second charge succeeded in taking Redoubt No. III. In the darkness these units followed the fleeing Confederates into the town.

Selma, Alabama · United States