Editing Helena, Alabama (section)

===Civil War===
The onset of the [[American Civil War]] brought the need for the South to increase its manufacturing production and develop new industries, in service of the [[Confederate States of America]]. Coal and iron ore mines were dug throughout this area and the construction of the [[Louisville & Nashville Railroad]] provided new transportation connections. Helena became an important industrial center for the wartime efforts. Around 1864 a [[rolling mill]] was built on Buck Creek, near the rail lines to process the iron from Selma.

Peter Boyle, an engineer for the railroad working on a new line, met and courted Helen Lee. He would name the rail station that supported the rolling mill after her. Eventually the town was named Helena after the train station.

====Wilson's Raid====
As the final battles of the Civil War were being fought, Union forces amassed a force for a cavalry raid to attack the South's war fighting capability, as [[Sherman's March to the Sea|Sherman's march]] had done the previous year. Led by [[James Harrison Wilson]], this force passed through the town of Helena on March 30, 1865, where they destroyed much of the newly developed industry and residential buildings.