In April 1865, T. C. McCorvey of Tuscaloosa recalled as a boy of 13 the raids on Monroeville during the War Between The States. The first raid caused panic in the village when couriers warned that Federal cavalry was approaching from Claiborne, sending women and children to the village hotel. Monroe County probate judge Murdock McCorvey and Mrs. Mary Eastin Spottswood rode out on the Claiborne road to seek protection for village homes and were taken to Lt. Col. Asa L. Gurney of the 2nd New York detachment. No house in the village was pillaged, but Confederate commissary stores gathered under the so-called tax-in-kind and stored in houses on the northern side of the courthouse square were burned. Courthouse safes were broken open and some documents were scattered and lost in a search for valuables, though public records were not wantonly destroyed. Later, Lucas' brigade passed through Monroeville, northwest of Smith's army's route, and on April 21 its advance guard entered the village without warning; by nightfall the whole brigade was encamped there. The 2nd New York cavalry under General Morgan H. Chrysler camped around the Baptist Church east of the courthouse, and although guards were posted to prevent plundering of homes, smokehouses and barns were stripped clean.