Born in McConnelsville, Ohio, Strahl graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University and studied law. Passing the bar in 1858, he set up practice in a succession of small Tennessee towns.

When war broke out, the successful lawyer was appointed captain of the 4th Tennessee Infantry in May, 1861. He first saw action at Shiloh, Stones River, and Perryville. In January, 1863, Strahl was promoted to full colonel and seven months later, he was promoted to Brigadier General.

In September, he led his brigade with distinction during the Battle of Chickamauga. Serving in Cheatham's Division, his men made repeated assaults against the Union center on September 19th and next saw action during the Chattanooga Campaign. Strahl was stationed on the Confederate left at the battle of Missionary Ridge. His unit (along with the rest of the Confederate line) gave way and retreated as a result of the Federal assault.

Strahl's Brigade gave valuable service throughout the Atlanta Campaign in 1864. When General Hood invaded Tennessee in November, 1864, Strahl was stationed in Major General John C. Browne's Division.

At the battle of Franklin on November 30, Browne's and Major General Patrick Cleburne's divisions were ordered to make a frontal assault on the forbidding Union entrenchments surrounding the town. Before the fight, he cautioned his men that the work would be "short but desperate." Attacking along the Columbia Turnpike, the Confederates drove a force of Union troops into the breastworks and entered after them. The opposing lines were at most a few paces apart, engaged in vicious fighting. But when Strahl was asked if his brigade should withdraw, he told his men to "keep on firing." The general was passing reloaded rifles to his soldiers on the ramparts when a bullet found and killed him. He was buried in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Union General David Sloan Stanley

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