ALABAMA BICENTENNIAL SERIES: COAL AND CAVALRY

Course instructor James Day, Professor of History, the University of Montevallo.

July 10: Diamonds in the Rough: A History of Alabama’s Cahaba Coal Field

This study considers the chronological discovery, mapping, mining and marketing of coal from Alabama’s second largest coal field, as well as, the issues of convict leasing, town development, welfare capitalism, and unionism. At the heart of the story are the diverse people who lived and worked in the district – whether operator or miner, management or labor, union or nonunion, white or black, immigrant or local. Largely obscured today by pine trees and kudzu, the mining districts of the Cahaba coal field forever influenced the lives of countless individuals and families, and ultimately contributed to the whole fabric of the state of Alabama.

July 17: Wilson’s Cavalry Raid Through Alabama, Spring 1865.

This class will focus on the following components of the U.S. cavalry raid: the U.S. Army in northern Alabama; cavalry advance from the Tennessee River to Elyton (now West Birmingham); Croxton’s Raid on Tuscaloosa and The University of Alabama; Croxton’s operations along the Sipsey River; cavalry operations from Elyton through Montevallo toward Selma; Nathan Bedford Forrest and the battle for Selma; Union operations in the Montgomery vicinity; Union advances east of Montgomery toward Columbus and LaGrange, Georgia; and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.