Streight's Raid, a Civil War campaign conducted by U.S. Army colonel Abel D. Streight from April 19 to May 3, 1863, to destroy portions of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, had little effect upon federal attempts to defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Its principal significance lies in the legends that grew up around Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest's capture of Streight and his men, with the aid of Emma Sansom, near the present-day city of Gadsden.
Streight, a native of New York, owned a printing company and lumber yard in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was a Republican Party member who openly espoused abolitionist sympathies. He enlisted in the Federal army days after Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter. In July 1862, Streight served as part of the Federal occupation force in northern Alabama. During this brief period, he routinely interacted with north Alabama Unionists, as those who remained loyal to the United States were known, and recruited many into the federal army. He greatly overestimated their numbers, and this misconception, shared by many Federal military commanders and President Abraham Lincoln, jeopardized the planned raids by U.S. Army troops months before they began.
