In the spring of 1863, one of the most remarkable campaigns of the American Civil War swept across North Alabama and Northwest Georgia.
Union Colonel Abel Streight led nearly 1,700 soldiers on a daring mission to destroy the railroads and manufacturing centers of Rome, Georgia. Opposing him was Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose relentless pursuit became one of the most famous chases of the war.
The military campaign is well documented.
The people who lived through it are often forgotten.
Faking Thunder was inspired by both.
While the screenplay follows fictional civilians caught between two armies, many of the places, events, and historical figures portrayed in the story are based on real people and documented history.
Salt: The Necessity of Survival
Today, salt is inexpensive and easy to obtain.
In 1863, Southern families thought about it constantly.
Before refrigeration, salt was essential for preserving meat. Pork, beef, and other foods could be packed in salt and stored for months. Without it, valuable food supplies spoiled quickly.
As the Civil War continued, Confederate salt became increasingly scarce. Union forces targeted salt works whenever possible, transportation systems broke down, and prices soared.
Many families became desperate.
Historical accounts describe people scraping old salt barrels, reusing brine repeatedly, and traveling great distances to obtain even a few pounds.
Some families resorted to digging dirt from smokehouse floors. For years, meat had been cured inside smokehouses using salt. Over time, salt seeped into the earth beneath the structures. During the war, families dug up this dirt, boiled it in water, and evaporated the liquid in hopes of recovering enough salt to preserve food.
The process was slow and inefficient.
But it worked.
To many Southern families, salt was not a luxury.
It was survival.
Understanding that reality helps explain why a dangerous journey to Rome for a wagonload of salt might be worth the risk.
Cherokee County Salt Fund, 1862
Why Rome, Georgia Mattered
In 1863, Rome, Georgia was one of the Confederacy's most important transportation and manufacturing centers.
Three railroads converged there, linking Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and points beyond. Troops, weapons, food, iron, and military supplies moved through Rome in enormous quantities.
Rome was also home to foundries, mills, machine shops, and manufacturing facilities that supported Confederate armies throughout the region.
Colonel Abel Streight believed that destroying Rome's rail connections would significantly disrupt Confederate operations.
His objective was simple: Reach Rome. Destroy the railroads. Return if possible.
Streight's Raid
In April 1863, Streight's command entered North Alabama.
Because horses were scarce, many of his soldiers rode mules instead. Confederate soldiers mockingly referred to the expedition as a "Jackass Cavalry," a nickname that remains associated with the raid today.
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was ordered to stop the raiders before they reached Rome.
What followed was a running campaign across North Alabama involving engagements at Day's Gap, Crooked Creek, Hog Mountain, Blountsville, Black Creek, and Cedar Bluff.
For days, Forrest's cavalry pursued the Union column across mountains, river crossings, farms, and small communities.
On May 3, 1863, Forrest finally forced Streight's surrender near Cedar Bluff, Alabama.
The raid was over.
Although the campaign ended in a Confederate victory, the broader impact was more complicated. Forrest successfully prevented the destruction of Rome's railroads and industrial facilities, achieving his immediate objective. Yet the war itself continued unchanged. Within two years, Confederate armies would surrender, and many of the railroads, factories, and communities fought over during Streight's Raid would experience far greater upheaval than anyone involved could have imagined in the spring of 1863.
Today, the raid is remembered less for casualties and more for the extraordinary pursuit, the civilians who experienced it, and the stories that survived.
The People Behind the History
The military campaign lasted only a matter of days.
The stories left behind have endured for more than 160 years.
Emma Sansom
Perhaps no civilian became more closely associated with Streight's Raid than sixteen-year-old Emma Sansom.
After Union forces crossed Black Creek and burned the bridge behind them, Forrest's pursuit appeared stalled. Emma informed Forrest that she knew of a nearby ford where cattle crossed the creek. According to local accounts, she guided Forrest to the crossing, allowing Confederate troops to continue their pursuit.
Her actions became one of Alabama's most enduring Civil War stories.
In 1907, a monument honoring Emma Sansom was erected in Gadsden, where it still stands today.
Robert Turner
The Soldier Buried by the Sansoms
One of the most poignant stories connected to Streight's Raid involves Confederate cavalryman Robert P. Turner.
Turner was killed during fighting near Black Creek on May 2, 1863.
His body was brought to the Sansom home, where Emma Sansom, her mother, members of the Blair family, and neighboring residents helped prepare him for burial.
Turner was laid to rest in the Sansom family cemetery overlooking the area where the fighting occurred.
More than 160 years later, he remains buried there.
His grave serves as a quiet reminder that the war touched ordinary soldiers and families long after the armies moved on.
John Wisdom
The Paul Revere of the South
Long before telephones and radio, information traveled on horseback.
John Henry Wisdom operated a ferry in the region and was well known throughout the area. Like many North Alabama residents, he relied upon local transportation routes for both communication and commerce.
The war touched his life personally. Wisdom's mother lived in Rome, Georgia — one of the primary objectives of Streight's expedition.
As news of the approaching Union force spread, Wisdom realized that the danger was moving toward a city where members of his own family lived.
According to local tradition, he mounted his horse and rode approximately sixty-seven miles through North Alabama and Northwest Georgia, changing horses as needed while warning communities of the approaching raiders.
His efforts helped alert Rome and surrounding communities to the danger.
The remarkable ride earned him a nickname that survives to this day: "The Paul Revere of the South."
The Murphree Family
Among the most memorable civilian stories associated with Streight's Raid is that of the Murphree family.
The Murphree family lived directly in the path of the campaign and experienced firsthand the disruption that accompanied the movement of armies through North Alabama.
Local accounts tell of several Union soldiers who became separated from the main body of Streight's command and eventually arrived at the Murphree home.
According to the story, the soldiers were offered food and drink by members of the family. Unbeknownst to the men, the refreshments were allegedly laced with a sleeping agent — often described in later retellings as laudanum or paregoric, two common opium-based medicines of the period. After the soldiers became incapacitated, Confederate authorities were notified and the men were taken into custody.
The account has survived for generations and remains one of the most colorful civilian stories connected to Streight's Raid.
Whether remembered as resourcefulness, revenge, or simple wartime necessity, the story illustrates how ordinary families sometimes found themselves playing unexpected roles in extraordinary events.
Simon Witham
A Soldier Who Refused to Die
Orderly Sergeant Simon Witham of the 73rd Indiana Infantry participated in Streight's Raid and was severely wounded during the fighting at Day's Gap on April 30, 1863.
Shot through the hip, Witham was left behind with other wounded soldiers as the campaign continued eastward.
Doctors reportedly believed he had little chance of survival.
Despite his injuries, Witham remained alive for twenty-six hours in the open and spent four days on the battlefield before being transported to Confederate hospitals.
Following months of recovery and imprisonment, he eventually returned home.
His story remains one of the most remarkable survival accounts associated with Streight's Raid.
Colonel Gilbert Hathaway
Colonel Gilbert Hathaway of the 73rd Indiana Infantry received a mortal wound during fighting associated with the raid.
His death became one of the campaign's most significant Union losses and remains part of local Civil War memory in Etowah County.
History and Story
The events of Streight's Raid are well documented.
The lives of the people who experienced those events are harder to know.
The people were real.
The battles were real.
The places were real.
But history was also carried by mothers, fathers, laborers, farmers, soldiers, and children trying to survive one difficult spring.
Faking Thunder was inspired by those ordinary people whose lives were forever changed by extraordinary events.
While many of the locations, events, and historical figures portrayed in Faking Thunder are based on documented history, the characters of Jep, Katie, Mert, Ben, and several others were created for the story.
Their journey is fictional.
The world they inhabit — and the events unfolding around them — are very real.
Through their eyes, Faking Thunder explores how ordinary people experienced one extraordinary week in the spring of 1863.