Battle of Munford April 23, 1865
John T Croxton The Battle of Munford, Alabama fought April 23 rd was the last battle of the Civil War to take place east of the Mississippi.
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 in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War (east of the Mississippi River).
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.
Benjamin Jefferson Hill (June 13, 1825 – January 5, 1880) was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. Before the war, he was a merchant and served in the Tennessee Senate. After the war, he was a merchant, lawyer and president of the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad.
The Confederate forces were commanded by General Benjamin Jefferson Hill. Confederate Lieutenant Lewis E. Parsons had two cannons which fired a couple of rounds before they were overrun. The Union troops quickly won the brief battle. Parsons was appointed provisional governor of Alabama in June after the war’s end.
Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (28 April 1817 – 8 June 1895) was the appointed provisional and 19th Governor of Alabama from June to December, 1865, following the American Civil War. Parsons was Alabama’s 19th governor. Parsons moved to Talladega, Alabama, in 1840, and practiced law with Alexander White. He was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives in 1859 and 1865. Parsons fought as a Confederate lieutenant at the brief Battle of Munford near Talladega in April, 1865.
One Union trooper and one Confederate killed that day are described by author Rex Miller as the last to die in open combat by contending military forces.
Editor’s Note: Munford is a town in Talladega County. It is the location of what has been called the last battle of the Civil War east of the Mississippi, the Battle of Munford on April 23, 1865, being one week after the Battle of Columbus (April 16, 1865) in Georgia.
More Civil War Battles are Listed on our Civil War Battle Site Page
References:
- War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 49, Part 1, p.418.
- Owen, Thomas McAdory, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, 4:1324.
- Miller, Rex, Croxton’s Raid, p.79
- War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 49, Part 1, p.418.
- Miller, Rex (1979), Croxton’s Raid, Fort Collins, Colorado: Old Army Press, ISBN 0-88342-244-1