Battle of Munford explained

Battle of Munford should not be confused with Battle of Munfordville.

Conflict:	Battle of Munford
Width:	330px
Partof:	the American Civil War
Date:	April 23, 1865
Place:	Munford, Alabama
Result:	Union victory
Combatant1:	United States (Union)
Combatant2:	CSA (Confederacy)
Commander1:	Brig. Gen. John T. Croxton
Commander2:	Brig. Gen. Benjamin J. Hill
Units1:	Croxton's Brigade ^[1] 2nd Michigan Cavalry 4th Kentucky Mtd. Infantry 6th Kentucky Cavalry 8th Iowa Cavalry
Units2:	Hill's Brigade ^[2] ^[3] Lowe's Alabama Cavalry ^[4] Hays' Tennessee Cavalry ^[5] One section of artillery ^[6]
Strength1:	1,500 ^[7]
Strength2:	500 ^[8] ^[9]
Casualties1:	Total: 26 Killed: 4 Wounded: 15 ^[10] Captured or Missing: 7
Casualties2:	Total: 15 Killed: 1 Wounded: unknown Captured: 14 ^[11]
Notes:	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]

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.

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]

Lieutenant Andrew Jackson Buttram was the last Confederate soldier to die in battle east of the Mississippi River,^[15] at the Battle of Munford.^[16]

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).

33.5335°N -85.9542°W

Notes and References

1. https://archive.org/details/08697590.3359.emory.edu/page/n675/mode/1up Dyer's Compendium, Part 2, p.669
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. https://books.google.com/books?id=Lnm6BQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Lowe%27s+regiment+of+Hill%27s+brigade%22+%22reported+he+was+in+an+engagement+near+Oxford%2C+Alabama%22&pg=PA103 Sterling, Robin, Blount County, Alabama Confederate Soldiers, Volume 3: Miscellaneous, p.103 (see record of Aaron C. Cornelius).
5. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077723009&view=1up&seq=679 War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 45, Part 2, p.677 (Cooper to Hill).
6. https://archive.org/details/ahundredbattles00thatrich/page/243/mode/1up Thatcher, Marshall P., A Hundred Battles in the West (1884), p.243
7. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730103&view=1up&seq=441 ibid., p.419
8. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730103&view=1up&seq=445 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. Web site: Burying history, a bus burns and a bridge into the past. Bob. Sims. January 21, 2020. al.
16. Web site: A.J. Buttram Monument Historical Marker .