A piece of history returns home

Civil War map drawn by Ohio soldier shows Decatur's fortifications, Confederate positions

By Deangelo McDaniel
Staff Writer

The most detailed map of Decatur during the final months of the Civil War has made it home.

And, a letter written by the Union soldier who drew the map shows that local Confederate forces were ready to give up their guns before Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

"Astounding. This is absolutely astounding," local Civil War historian Robert Parham said.

The map is so detailed that it has the earliest reference to Decatur's city cemetery and shows a fort that was only rumored to exist.

"This gives us new insight, but it also verifies what we already knew about Decatur and the Civil War," Parham said.

The hand-drawn map has survived for almost 150 years. Its journey back to Decatur started 10 years ago when a woman purchased a home in Mansfield, Ohio.

She found a cardboard box in the basement and was preparing to send it to the dump.

"She called me and asked if I was interested in it," said Jerry Smith, who carried the box to his home.

Smith reviewed the box's contents two years ago. He found with the map a letter and the military papers of Union soldier William A. Ferree.

"I was really excited when I read the letter, and I wanted to put his military experience in perspective," Smith said.

He searched online and was surprised to find Decatur promotional literature containing almost the identical design of the fort that Ferree drew.

"We had not heard of Decatur, Alabama until this," Smith said.

Two weeks ago, Smith and his wife, Susan, visited Decatur with the map, letter and Ferree's military papers.

"Decatur is a nice place, a very nice place," he said. "It doesn't seem like a war was fought here."

Ferree, who was a member of the 102nd Ohio Infantry Regiment's Company D, joined the Union Army on Aug. 9, 1862, with his father's consent.

His military papers are so detailed that they describe him as being 5 feet, 9 inches tall with blue eyes and red hair. His commanding officer promoted him to corporal in Decatur 10 days before he was discharged June 30, 1865, in Nashville.

The most significant part of the collection, Morgan County Archivist John Allison said, are the map and a Feb. 6, 1865, letter Ferree wrote to his father from Decatur.

"The fact that this was sitting in a trunk in Ohio makes you wonder how much more about Decatur may be out there," Allison said.

Ferree's unit was in Decatur when Union Gen. G.M. Dodge ordered the commanding officer in Decatur to take control of every building and remove every citizen within one mile of Decatur.

Dodge's plan to fortify Decatur was part of the Union campaign to take Atlanta. By fortifying Decatur, the Union Army was able to run continuous supply trains from Decatur to Nashville and Chattanooga.

Consistent with military accounts, Ferree's map shows Forts No. 1 and No. 2, which were designed to fend off a Confederate attack from the south.

Previous maps have not shown Fort No. 3 which is designed to defend an attack from the north side of the Tennessee River.

Parham said this fort was probably constructed in December 1864 after Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee was in retreat from Nashville.

"I had heard rumors about this fort, but I had never seen it on a map," Parham said.

The map also identifies the location of the commissary and ammunition house, and shows breastworks "extended all the way long on the river bank."

Near Fort No. 1, close to the site of Gobble-Fite Lumber Co., Ferree shows a Union bomb shelter. Based on descriptions at other military sites, this would have been a hole in the ground that was covered with lumber and bags of dirt.

"It would have been a place for the top military leaders to go if the fort came under attack," Parham said. "I don't think this bombproof was here when Hood was in Decatur."

Ferree's map shows federal positions outside the fort and "the rebs inside" gopher holes extending "all the way round" the fort.

It also shows the Moulton, Courtland and Somerville roads as well as the federal pontoon bridge over the Tennessee River and the path Hood's men took toward Courtland, after camping near Decatur in October 1864.

"This is a phenomenal piece of historical work," Allison said.

As to the Feb. 6, 1865, letter, Ferree wrote that Confederate deserters "are constantly coming to our lines" and that "there has been a flag of truce" just about every day for two weeks.

Gen. Philip D. Roddey, he noted, wanted to surrender his forces as long as federal authorities allowed him to keep his horses and granted paroles to his troops.

Union leaders declined Roddey's surrender offer, which came almost three months before Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

Roddey, who was from Lawrence County, was in charge of Confederate troops in North Alabama for most of the war.

Ferree confirms in his letter that the Union Army destroyed every building of non-military necessity in Decatur.

After Confederate troops no longer posed a threat to the fort, however, federal authorities wanted to ship government stores to Decatur but "found no place to put them," Ferree wrote.

The Smiths left copies of the letter, map and military papers at the Morgan County Archives.

Allison said he will display the collection.

Ferree, who returned to farming after the war, died in 1919.