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Sand Mountain AL

Sand Mountain AL, GA, TN
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Mountain_(Alabama)


Prehistory through the Colonial Period

The Sand Mountain area has been inhabited for at least 9,000 years, as evidenced by archaeological finds at nearby Russell Cave National Monument, near Bridgeport, Alabama.[3] In historical times, Cherokee and Creek villages were located in the Tennessee Valley to the west of Sand Mountain, and in Wills Valley to the east. Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary, lived in the Cherokee village of Wills Town, near present-day Fort Payne in Wills Valley.[4]

The first Europeans to see it were probably Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his men, who are believed to have crossed Sand Mountain during their journey through southeastern North America between 1539 and 1543. One of the likely routes for the expedition traces their path across Sand Mountain on the way south from the Tennessee Valley to the Coosa Valley.[5]

Civil War

Union troops under Major General George H. Thomas crossed Sand Mountain in September 1863 in an attempt to cut off the Confederate troops in Chattanooga. They were unsuccessful, and the opposing armies met at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19–20, 1863, resulting in a major Confederate victory.[6]

Jackson and DeKalb counties, along with the other counties of north Alabama, had voted against immediate secession in December 1860, and pro-Union sentiment remained strong on Sand Mountain. In early 1861, citizens in several northeastern counties proposed breaking away from Alabama and joining with neighboring counties of East Tennessee to create a new Union state of Nickajack.[7] Industries such as mining, milling, and working for the railroad were acceptable as exemptions to military service for Southern unionists, and some on Sand Mountain who did not wish to serve in the army worked at Sauta Cave in the Tennessee Valley, mining potassium nitrate to make gunpowder at Selma.[8]

In September 1861, the "Paint Rock Rifles" were raised on Sand Mountain by Confederate Colonel Lemuel Green Mead of Jackson County. They became Company C of the 26th Alabama Infantry Regiment, and served with distinction at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. Mead resigned his infantry commission in July 1862, after Union troops had invaded north Alabama, and organized an independent company of partisan rangers who carried out guerrilla raids against occupying Union forces. The company was the core of what eventually became Mead's Alabama and Tennessee Cavalry Battalion.[9]

In the summer of 1862, "Gunter's 1st Partisan Ranger Battalion" was formed on Sand Mountain in Jackson County by Major William T. Gunter. The battalion consisted of five mounted companies and served under Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest in skirmishes along the Tennessee River. In November 1862, the battalion was merged with the 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment.[10]

A Union regiment, the 1st Tennessee and Alabama Vidette Cavalry, was formed at Union-occupied Stevenson, Alabama, in 1863, drawing men primarily from Sand Mountain, many of them Confederate deserters. However, the regiment was never all together and the companies were scattered around the area on guard duty. It was eventually disbanded before the end of the war.[11]


Settlements located on Sand Mountain

Jackson County

DeKalb County

Marshall County


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