…was built in 1848, and is on the corner of Perry and High Streets. It has been described as Montgomery’s quintessential “Southern Mansion”, even though it had been built as a townhouse, not as a plantation mansion.. In 1865, after the surrender, Yankee General James Wilson rode in and took command of the city. From this columned portico was read his order placing Montgomery under martial law. William Teague bought the property in 1889, and it was he that started the famous Teague Hardware, and who built the Gay-Teague Hotel. In 1955 the house was acquired by, and became home of, the State Chamber of Commerce (now BCA). Today it is home to the Alabama Historical Commission.

Above is Union Major General James H Wilson, a civil engineer by training, who became Sherman’s chief of cavalry. It was Wilson that trained Sherman’s vicious cavalry for the latter’s infamous March to the Sea. It was Wilson, with a specially trained force of 18,000 troops, that finally defeated Southern hero Nathan Bedford Forrest, as Forrest tried vainly to defend the munitions works at Selma with his ragtag remnant. It was Wilson that captured Jefferson Davis as he attempted to flee across Georgia after the surrender. It was Wilson that occupied Montgomery after all was lost.

-Charles Humphries