On April 11, 1865 Federal troops known as "Wilson's Raiders" came to Montgomery. The city fathers, having no way to defend the city, agreed surrender.
The next day, April 12, the order of Union General James H. Wilson, placing Montgomery under martial law, was read from the front portico of what is now known as the Teague House. Federal troops made their headquarters there as well.
The Teague House, built in 1848, is now the home of the Alabama Historical Commission. I hope there will be a commemoration of the sesquicentennial of this historic event on April 12, 2015.
I might add that Wilson was much less hospitable in Tuscaloosa where he burned most of the buildings at the University of Alabama, and in Selma, where he won the Battle of Selma, and in the process, many houses and buildings in that town burned also.
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