In April, 1863, Charley Lloyd, a farmer working the land in what is now Anniston, Alabama west of Noble Street, was executed by Union General John T. Croxton for allegedly shooting a Union cavalryman. In fact, the Union trooper had been killed by a Confederate soldier who was fighting with the unit combating the Union troops’ progress through the area. General Croxton’s troops were in east Alabama destroying resources in the area, having just burned buildings at Oxford, Alabama, about two miles south, fought the Confederates at the Battle of Munford 15 miles south, and destroyed much of Talladega in the next county. A few hundred yards south of the hill where the Confederates shot the Union troopers, an iron foundry had been destroyed that day.
The Confederate soldiers who shot the Union soldier were resisting the continuing destruction of local facilities. Croxton's only evidence against Lloyd to support his execution was that the shooting took place near Lloyd's farm. Lloyd was one of very few farmers who lived where Anniston now sits, the city having been founded after the Civil War. Being virtually the only male resident of what is now Anniston, his death is significant to the history of the city.
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