Our Town Almanac
Pulaski, Tennessee The Pulaski Almanacpart of Our Town Almanac · directory, events, history & people · Giles County, Tennessee · ZIP 38478

Explore · Campaign trail

The Railroad in 1864: Pulaski to Athens and Back

Giles County sat on the Nashville & Decatur Railroad. In September 1864 the war came down that line between Athens, Alabama, and Pulaski. This loop visits where it happened.

A loop from the Pulaski square: about 71 miles · 1 hr 42 min of driving.

Open the loop in Google Maps

How we tell this storyThis is a history drive, not a celebration of either army. We quote the official records and state markers, use the same plain words for Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers and the enslaved people whose lives the war changed, and link every source so you can read it yourself.

The Tennessee Encyclopedia says the railroad made Giles County “a center of activity during the Civil War,” and that Union troops held the county for several years [1]. In the fall of 1864, it says, Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest “destroyed railroad and protective blockhouses in northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee” [2].

The loop

Pulaski: a contraband camp and three regiments

Start here

Brick storefronts and a church steeple along a street on the Pulaski square
Storefronts on the Pulaski square. Photo: Ichabod, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons (resized).

The Tennessee Encyclopedia lists Pulaski among the state's contraband camps, where enslaved people who came into Union lines gathered [3].

The 110th U.S. Colored Infantry was organized at Pulaski on Nov. 20, 1863, as the 2nd Alabama Infantry (African Descent), and did garrison duty there. The 111th was organized at Pulaski on Jan. 3, 1864, as the 3rd Alabama. The 106th, organized at Decatur, Ala., on March 31, 1864, was attached to the Pulaski garrison [4] [5] [6].

The Building Up statue at Cave Spring Heritage Plaza honors the U.S. Colored Troops. See it, and the full story, on our Pulaski history page.

Public square, free. Cave Spring Heritage Plaza is at 590 N. 1st St.

In Alabama

Athens, Alabama: Sept. 23–24, 1864

33.5 miles · about 46 minutes

The columned Limestone County Courthouse in Athens, Alabama, with a clock in its pediment
Limestone County Courthouse, Athens, Alabama. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, public domain, Wikimedia Commons (resized).

All three regiments from the Pulaski garrison were in the fight when Forrest's cavalry attacked Athens on Sept. 23–24, 1864. The National Park Service record for the 111th notes “most of Regiment captured” [4] [5] [6].

Athens has an earlier chapter, from Mitchel's 1862 campaign. Two Ohio units occupied the town on April 27, 1862. On May 1 the Confederate First Louisiana Cavalry pushed them out, and when Union troops came back, soldiers of Col. John B. Turchin's Eighth Brigade “pillaged civilian property and committed other atrocities,” the Encyclopedia of Alabama says. Turchin was court-martialed and found guilty, then promoted to brigadier general [7]. His was the brigade that had led the march into Huntsville [8].

Courthouse square, downtown Athens. Free. Allow 20 minutes.

In Alabama

Sulphur Creek Trestle marker, near Elkmont, Alabama

7.7 miles · about 12 minutes

A Union fort near here guarded a large railroad trestle. The Limestone County Historical Society marker says that on Sept. 25, 1864, Forrest's cavalry attacked and captured it: “Over 200 Union officers and men, including Col. Lathrop, were killed,” about 900 survivors surrendered, and the trestle and blockhouses were destroyed [9]. A detachment of the 111th U.S. Colored Infantry was there [5].

Roadside marker on Elkmont Rd. (AL 127), south of Morris Rd. We have not checked parking; pull off only where safe and legal. Free.

State marker 3F 34, Elkton Pike, Pulaski

25.6 miles · about 37 minutes

Two days later, on Sept. 27, 1864, the state marker says Buford's Division, the advance guard of Forrest's cavalry, “met Federal resistance in this area,” got to within three miles of Pulaski, could advance no further and withdrew. “The cemetery in the vicinity contains Confederate casualties” [10].

Roadside marker at 2171 Elkton Pike (US 31). Free. Then 4.5 miles back to the square.

After the war

After the war, Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan [2], which was founded in Pulaski [1]. We name that plainly and do not follow any one commander on this drive. Our Pulaski history page covers it, and the community's resistance to later Klan events.

Where this story continues

Sources

  1. Tennessee Encyclopedia, Giles County
  2. Tennessee Encyclopedia, Nathan Bedford Forrest
  3. Tennessee Encyclopedia, Contraband Camps
  4. National Park Service, Soldiers and Sailors Database: 110th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry
  5. National Park Service, Soldiers and Sailors Database: 111th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry
  6. National Park Service, Soldiers and Sailors Database: 106th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry
  7. Encyclopedia of Alabama, Sack of Athens
  8. Mitchel's report of April 11, 1862 (Official Records), reprinted by the Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table
  9. Limestone County Historical Society marker, Battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle (HMdb 60870)
  10. Tennessee Historical Commission marker 3F 34, Forrest's September Raid (HMdb 96515)

Photo credits

Drive distances and times: OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data, checked Oct. 27, 2026.