Battle of Munford

The Battle of Munford took place in Munford, Alabama, on Sunday, April 23, 1865, during the raid through the state by 1,500 Union Army cavalrymen under General John T. Croxton, part of the force participating in Wilson's Raid. The Battle of Munford and a minor action at Hendersonville, North Carolina on the same day were the last battles of the American Civil War east of the Mississippi River.

Battle of Munford
Part of the American Civil War

Munford and vicinity (USGS map 1900)
DateApril 23, 1865
Location
Munford, Alabama
Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States (Union) CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Brig. Gen. John T. Croxton Brig. Gen. Benjamin J. Hill
Units involved
Croxton's Brigade [1]
2nd Michigan Cavalry
4th Kentucky Mtd. Infantry
6th Kentucky Cavalry
8th Iowa Cavalry		 Hill's Brigade [2][3]
Lowe's Alabama Cavalry [4]
Hays' Tennessee Cavalry [5]
One section of artillery [6]
Strength
1,500 [7] 500 [8][9]
Casualties and losses
Total: 26
Killed: 4
Wounded: 15 [10]
Captured or Missing: 7		 Total: 15
Killed: 1
Wounded: unknown
Captured: 14 [11]
The 2nd Michigan Cavalry (the advance regiment of the brigade) lost two men killed, five missing and two captured in the charge through Munford.[12] In rearguard actions, the 8th Iowa Cavalry lost two men killed.[13]
Battle of Munford historical marker.
A. J. Buttram Monument - The last Confederate soldier killed east of the Mississippi.

The Confederate soldiers in the battle were described as convalescents, home guards, and pardoned deserters, while the Union cavalry was a veteran force armed with 7-shot Spencer repeating carbines. The Confederates were commanded by General Benjamin Jefferson Hill. Lieutenant Lewis E. Parsons had two cannons which fired several rounds before they were overrun. The Union troops won the brief battle. Parsons was appointed provisional governor of Alabama in June after the war's end.

The Union and Confederate soldiers killed that day are described by author Rex Miller as the last to die in open combat by contending military forces.[14]

THE LAST BATTLE.

Numerous battles have been written up as "the last fight of the rebellion." Without disputing in regard to the matter it is a fact, not generally known, that a battalion (the saber battalion) of the Second Michigan cavalry, under brevet Major Whittemore, charged the force under General Hill, near Talladega, Alabama, on the 23d of April, 1865, and was supported by the regiment and brigade, scattering the entire Confederate force and capturing the artillery, and many prisoners. This was fourteen days after the surrender at Appomattox, and therefore quite late enough after a cessation of hostilities. The next day the country was filled with small parties returning home—a sadly broken down people.

-Captain Marshall P. Thatcher, Second Michigan Cavalry [15]

References
  1. Dyer's Compendium, Part 2, p.669; War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 49, Part 1, p.402.
  2. Keenan, Jerry, Wilson's Cavalry Corps: Union Campaigns in the Western Theatre, October 1864 through Spring 1865 (1998), p.209
  3. General B.J. Hill (May 1865): "I received authority from the Secretary of War of the Confederate States, approved by the House of Representatives and Senate, to raise a new brigade in North Alabama and North Georgia of mounted men. I have made my headquarters at Blue Mountain and Jacksonville, Ala., for the past three months, and have succeeded in organizing two small regiments, about one-half of whom were killed, captured, or deserted during the two late raids of Generals Wilson and Croxton through Alabama." War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 49, Part 2, p.709.
  4. Sterling, Robin, Blount County, Alabama Confederate Soldiers, Volume 3: Miscellaneous, p.103.
  5. War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 45, Part 2, p.677 (Cooper to Hill).
  6. Thatcher, Marshall P., A Hundred Battles in the West (1884), p.243; War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 49, Part 1, p.418.
  7. ibid., p.419
  8. ibid, p.423
  9. Miller, Rex, Croxton's Raid, p.79
  10. "Andrew Jackson Buttram, CSA," Tap Roots (Genealogical Society of East Alabama), Vol.37, No.3 (January 2000), p.186.
  11. Names appearing on a "List of Prisoners of War captured by 1st Division Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi" (Register No. 63) at Munford, Ala., April 23, 1865, National Archives' Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers.
  12. Miller, Rex, Croxton's Raid, p.81; Thatcher, Marshall P., A Hundred Battles in the West (1884), Roster; Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865, Volume 32.
  13. "The Eighth was unfortunately in the rear, and had only a few skirmishes, in which, however, Wright, of Company E, and Standard, of Company K, were killed." Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 4 (1910), p. 1519.
  14. Miller, Rex, Croxton's Raid, pp.80-81
  15. Thatcher, Marshall P., A Hundred Battles in the West (1884), p.416

Further reading
  • Armes, Ethel, The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama (1910). See sections on the Knight Furnace (Choccolocco Ironworks), Oxford Furnace, and Salt Creek Ironworks.
  • Woodward, Joseph H., Alabama Blast Furnaces (2007, originally published in 1940).
  • Hughes, William Edgar, A Lincoln Man in the Rebel Army (2016, originally published in 1912).


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