The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-01

 Trinity college. is erecting a new brick building on Fort Hill, which Is to take the place of the college building de- stroyed by fire not long ago. The walls of the building are nearing com pletion.
 The erection of this colored school in the old fortillustrates prettily the changes which time has wrought, and hnent the fort there Is told a true story which illustrates well the sagaci- ty and humanity of one of the south's best and most rugged characters, a born cavalry leader, N. B. Forrest.
 There is no doubt of the truth of this story of ruse de guerre which saved many lives by preventing the taking of the fort by storm. Old citl- zens who were eye witnesses to the stratagem have attested its correctness, and the Courier of Athens published, some years ago, an account of the af- fairs from the pen of Hon. John w, Morton, now Tennessee's secretary of state, and during the civil war For rests chief of artillery. But GeneAal Forrest does not mention the ruse in his official report to the assistant ad
 jutant general at Selma, Ala, Major F. Ellis.
 The garrison was composed of colored troops, oficered by white men. Gen eral Forests reason for not mention ing his stratagem might have been a desire to keep his meth ods secret from others, especially from the enemy should his report chance to be in- tercepted. That would have been a good reason. He made an appeal to the Federal colonel in command of the fort, Col. Wallace Campbell, based on | Ai, .--Ni. I,la oY,d htr- manity. The garrison was composed of negroes, but Forests cavalry of 4500 could not have taken the fort by storm without great loss of life. And his men would certainly have become infuriated as they had done on a former occa- sion and acted without much mercy. In his report, which lies before your correspondent, General Forrest says: '"While my troops wore steadily ad- vancing on the fort and the artillery was pouring into it concentrated fire, I ordered a halt and the artillery ceased firing. Knowing 1t would cost heavily to storm and capture the enc my's works, and wishing to prevent the effusion of blood that knew would follow successful assault, l deter mined to see If anything could be &C., complished by negotiations. Accord ingly sent Major Strange of my staff, with a flag of truce, demanding the surrender of the fort and garrison. Aft CT much apparent hesitancy, Colonel Campbell refused to make the surren- der. I returned to my command de- ter1nined to renew the assault; but still desiring to spare my men and the mas sacre of the garrison. I sent another flag requesting an interview with Col onel Campbell at any place he might designate outside the fort. The in- tervfew was granted. I assured Colonel Campbell that for the sake of humanity, l should do everything in my power to prevent collision and for that pur- pose I invited him to examine my troops for himself and judge of my ability to take his works. He accom- panied me along my line and. after witnessing the strength and enthusi- asm of my troops, he surrendered the fort with its entire garrison
 A hasty sketch of the attack and surrender will show how bloodshed was avoided, and how shrewdly brave, bold, fearless soldier can play trick of military legerdemain. This was on the brilliant raid that Forrest made Into Middle Tennessee in the fall of 1864. He brought his command up from Verona, Miss, to Corinth, at that stage of the war the eastern terminus or the Memphis and Charleston railroad. At Corinth he made every preparation for hls raid and left that place with ten days rations in the knapsacks of the soldiers. At daylight on the morning of September 21 his command moved forward, and on the evening of the 23d Athens, with It's formidable fort, was invested. The fort was square re- doubt with parapets from eight to ten feet high, and a moat deep and wide. an abatis of sharpened boughs of larger aoI,a Ia hxr Pl airy. The slaves of the people of Athens had been impressed to do the work of building the fort, and many of the garrison were formerly the property of Athenian citizeAs.
 When Forrest entered the town by the Florence road the main body of the enemy encamped in Easter's grove, in the northeastern part of the town, three quarters of a mile away from the fort, which was in the southwestern part of the town. As Forrest approached from the west the pickets of the enemy were encountered about a mile out and were rapidly driven In; and the enemy open ed fire on the Confederates from the fort with two pieces of artillery when the Confederate general heard the whistle of 8 locomotive at the depot, he ordered the Second Tennessee, com manded by Col. c. R. Bartean, and Ma for Anderson of his staff to take his escort and move rapidly to the north of the town and cut the railroad and telegraph lines. This order was prompt ly executed, after which the escort captured about one hundred horses ana some other property. The enemy did not have time to gather into the iort' made a daNh to the depot, and after wards entered north of town and slept on the railroad, doubtless to guard against re-inforcements from Sulphur Trustle or elsewhere. While this was being done Col. T. II. Bell occupied1he ea stern part of the town. Crossing the railroad south, he met the enemy from the camp and after some sharp sk1rm- fshing drove them to the fort, and rest ed on the eastern side of the railroad Col. D. c. Kelley, the noted Methodist divine. was ordered later in the night to take his position southeast Of town. hfs left resting on the railroad and hts right extending towards Belfs le1t General Buford, with Lyons brigade, remained on tho west, his left on the Florence and his right on the Browns ferry road. Col. W. A. Johnston, com manding General Roddy's men, that gereraI being i'll at the time and not able to go on the raid. did not arrive in time to take place that night put the next morning his troops were dis posed along several streets 1aclhs tne fort about eight hundred yards rom St.
 The Twentieth Tennessee cavalry un- der Lieutenant Colonel Jess A For rest and the Fourteenth Tennessee, cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel H. N White of Kelley's brigade, had been de- tached on the way up from Florence the day before to destroy a government car at McDonalds station, four miles south of Athens. and having performed that service and destroyed also the railroad