Battle of Day's Gap

Other Names: Sand Mountain

Location: Cullman County, Alabama

Campaign:  Streight's Raid in Alabama and Georgia (1863)

Date: April 30, 1863

Principal Commanders: Col. Abel Streight [US]; Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest [CS]

Forces Engaged: 51st Indiana, 73rd Indiana, 3rd Ohio, 80th Illinois Infantry, 1st Middle Tennessee Cavalry (1,500) [US]; (600) [CS]

Casualties and losses: 88 total (US 23; CS 65)

Result(s): Union victory

Brief Description:

Union Col. Abel D. Streight led a provisional brigade on a raid to cut the Western & Atlantic Railroad that supplied Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederate army in Middle Tennessee. From Nashville, Tennessee, Streight's command traveled to Eastport, Mississippi, and then proceeded east to Tuscumbia, Alabama, in conjunction with another Union force commanded by Brig. Gen. Grenville Dodge. On April 26, 1863, Streight's men left Tuscumbia and marched southeast, their initial movements screened by Dodge's troops. On April 30, Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's brigade caught up with Streight's expedition and attacked its rearguard at Day's Gap on Sand Mountain. The Federals repulsed this attack and continued their march to avoid further delay and envelopment. Thus began a running series of skirmishes and engagements at Crooked Creek (April 30), Hog Mountain (April 30), Blountsville (May 1), Black Creek/Gadsden (May 2), and Blount's Plantation (May 2). Forrest finally surrounded the exhausted Union soldiers near Rome, Georgia, where he forced their surrender on May 3.