I have a slightly different approach. And it does not matter if it is Struts 2 or even java.
Just add an index.html in the root of your web application that does a redirect.
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url="http://localhost/home.action" />
Alternately, you can use javascript.
<script type="text/javascript">
window.location.href = "http://localhost/home.action"
</script>
That way you don't need to worry about welcome files as well as struts.xml configuration. Plus you can use this approach in other applications too.