Eufaula, Alabama

===The Civil War in Eufaula===
Very little is known about the history of Eufaula during the [[American Civil War]] because very few contemporary records or newspapers survive.<ref name=bunn>{{cite book|author=Mike Bunn|title=Civil War Eufaula|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmOSv-_nWrEC|year=2013|publisher=The History Press|isbn=978-1-62619-244-7}}</ref>{{rp|10}} Alabama [[Secession in the United States|seceded]] from the United States on January 11, 1861. By the end of the month a military encampment was founded at Eufaula with soldiers ready to decamp to [[Fort Pickens]] or elsewhere as needed at the onset of hostilities.<ref>{{cite news|title=Alabama Military|work=The Macon Daily Telegraph|date=January 28, 1861|page=1}}</ref>  Ultimately six companies of the [[Confederate States Army]] (CSA) were raised at Eufaula and Barbour County.  One of these was the Eufaula [[Zouave#American Civil War|Zouaves]], one of dozens of military units on both sides that adopted that name, patterning their uniforms and [[order of battle]] after the French light infantry units on which they were modeled.<ref>{{cite book|author=Terry L. Jones|title=Historical Dictionary of the Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ET6CDfczq9gC&pg=PA1657|date=July 15, 2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7953-9|page=1657}}</ref>

The CSA operated a military hospital in Eufaula during the conflict.<ref>{{cite book|author=Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein|title=The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fVZeGtxiMcYC&pg=PA265|date=April 1, 2008|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-3078-0|page=265}}</ref> Eufaula's strategic position on the Chattahoochee river involved it in the naval component of the Confederate war effort, and at least one [[Ironclad warship#First battles between ironclads: the U.S. Civil War|ironclad warship]] was constructed in the city.<ref>{{cite news|title=Intelligence; Richmond; Eufaula|date=October 16, 1863|work=New London Daily Chronicle|page=2}}</ref>  By April 1865, the [[Union Army]] had occupied [[Selma, Alabama]], and plans were made to move the Alabama state government to Eufaula should Montgomery fall to Federal troops.<ref>{{cite news|title=From Alabama|work=Augusta Chronicle|date=April 9, 1865|page=2|place=Augusta, Georgia}}</ref>

Montgomery was captured on April 12 and governor [[Thomas H. Watts]], with other state officials, fled to Eufaula,<ref>{{cite news|title=From Alabama|work=Augusta Chronicle|page=2|date=April 16, 1865|place=Augusta, Georgia}}</ref>  establishing what the ''[[New York Daily Tribune]]'' called "the fugitive seat of Government of Alabama".<ref>{{cite news|title=From Alabama March Through the Country-Conduct of the Slaves-Cruelty of Masters|work=New York Daily Tribune|date=June 3, 1865|page=3}}</ref>  On April 29, 1865, Union general [[Benjamin Grierson]] had reached [[Clayton, Alabama]], and word had finally made it to Eufaula that the war was over.<ref name=williams/>{{rp|183}}  The mayor of Eufaula and some members of the city council rode over to Clayton to escort Grierson into Eufaula, thus ensuring a generally peaceful transition to Federal control of the city.<ref name=williams/>{{rp|183}}

Eufaula was the site of what may have been the last battle of the Civil War. On May 19, 1865, at Hobdy's Bridge near Eufaula a Confederate detachment attacked a 44-man detachment from companies C and F of the Union's [[1st Florida Cavalry Regiment (Union)|1st Florida Cavalry Regiment]], resulting in one soldier killed and three wounded.<ref>[http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/hobdys2.html "Skirmish at Hobdy's Bridge - Pike and Barbour Counties, Alabama"]. ''ExploreSouthernHistory.com''. Retrieved July 20, 2018.</ref>

By May 1865 the ''[[Daily Intelligencer (Atlanta)|Daily Intelligencer]]'' of Atlanta reported that 10,000 Union troops had occupied Eufaula.<ref>{{cite news|title=Yankee; Eufaula; Alabama; Grierson|work=The Daily Evening News|place=Macon, Georgia|date=May 4, 1865|page=2}}</ref>  In the immediate aftermath of the occupation there was a food riot and an "attempt to illegally distribute the public stores".<ref>{{cite news|title=Eufaula; Jasper Sawyers; Capt. Frank Brady|work=The Macon Daily Telegraph|date=May 24, 1865|page=2|place=Macon, Georgia}}</ref>  By the end of May Eufaula was sufficiently pacified that a special agent of the [[United States Post Office]] was able to deliver mail from [[Providence, Rhode Island]], to the town via [[Macon, Georgia]], without need for any of the twenty-five armed guards he had brought with him to defend him with violence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Another Evidence of Peace|work=Providence Evening Press|place=Providence, Rhode Island|date=May 30, 1865|page=3}}</ref>