Greatest 'secret mission' in Wilcox County history took place in 1865

Union General James H. Wilson

This week’s newspaper marks the first edition of the month of April, and each year when the calendar flips over to the month April, it’s hard not to think about the exciting events of April 1865 in Wilcox County, events that resulted in perhaps the greatest “secret mission” in county history.

For much of the Civil War, Wilcox County had been a relatively quiet and peaceful place while most of its able-bodied men were off fighting in places like Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi. All of that changed in the closing days of the war as Union troops moved through Wilcox County as part of Union raids throughout Alabama. Little information survives about exactly what happened in Wilcox County during this time, but what we do know is pretty interesting.

According to Vol. 2 of “Within the Bend: Stories of Wilcox County” by Ouida Starr Woodson, Union soldiers swept into Camden in April 1865 and ransacked the Wilcox County Courthouse, destroying many of the books and official papers contained inside. They scattered or tossed everything else into the streets of downtown Camden. The most important county documents however had been secretly removed from the building prior to their arrival by Probate Judge Zoraster Selman Cook and local coffin maker James Patrick Dannelly.

In secret, as word of the approaching Yankees reached Camden, Cook had Dannelly build a number of wooden boxes to store the county’s most important records and documents. “When Mr. Dannelly completed the boxes, they were carried to the Courthouse under cover of night,” Woodson wrote. “Bound books of deed, estate, marriage, mortgage, court and tax records were packed into the boxes.”

Those boxes of records, which weighed about 200 pounds each, were then clandestinely moved by wagon to a hiding place called “Hilderbrand Field,” which was located off the Bridgeport Road, several miles from downtown Camden. This hiding place was said to be thickly wooded and covered with briars and dense underbrush. Men enlisted to help in this secret mission to move the boxes included Herod Holt, John Hill, Jacob Wilkerson and Frank Corzelius.

Woodson also noted that Judge Cook’s son, John T. Cook, helped hide other important documents in a trunk that was transported to their plantation on the other side of the Alabama River near Kimbrough. A short time later, that trunk was once again moved to a “secluded wooded area” near the Clifton community, Woodson said. After the war, all of these hidden documents were returned to the courthouse, safe and sound.

On and off over the years, I’ve done a fair amount of research on the Yankee “invasion” of Wilcox County, but I’ve always been left with more questions than answers. It’s my belief that this movement of Union troops through Wilcox County was part of what’s known as “Wilson’s Raid,” a large operation led by Union general James H. Wilson. This operation, which was the largest cavalry operation of the entire war, aimed to destroy the region’s ability to support Confederate forces with supplies like food and ammunition.

With that said, even with the help of other researchers and a review of official field reports, I’ve been unable to pin down the exact dates when Union troops entered Wilcox County and ransacked the county courthouse. It would also be interesting to know exactly which Union cavalry units operated in Wilcox County and whether or not those units included any famous soldiers. Perhaps some of them went on to become famous after the war.

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with more information about the April 1865 Union raid in Wilcox County. Also, please let me hear from you if you know where “Hilderbrand Field” was located or if you have any more details about Judge Cook’s secret mission to save county records. April is Confederate History Month, so it is fitting that we make an extra effort to document the facts of these events for the generations yet to come.