Battle of West Point

Part of the American Civil War

Date	April 16, 1865
Location	West Point, Georgia
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

CSA (Confederacy)

Commanders and leaders

Oscar Hugh La Grange

Robert C. Tyler †

Strength

Cavalry Brigade
(3,750 men, 3 cannons)

120–265 men
3 cannons

Casualties and losses

7 killed
29 wounded

19 killed
28 wounded

The Battle of West Point was fought on April 16, 1865 in West Point, Georgia, during General James H. Wilson's raid in the South during the American Civil War. This battle was fought at Fort Tyler seven days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant and two days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, making it one of the last battles of the Civil War east of the Mississippi River and making Fort Tyler the last Confederate fort captured by the Union. The same day, just 30 miles to the south, the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, was fought by another division of Wilson's raiders. News of the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia reached the opposing forces in Georgia the day after the battle effectively ending the war east of the Mississippi River.

After defeating Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's defenders at Selma on April 2, 1865, and capturing Montgomery, Alabama, on April 12, U.S. Brig. Gen. Wilson turned his raiders' attentions toward the Chattahoochee River to the east. He telegraphed Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas:

"If I can now destroy arsenals and supplies at Columbus and divide their army in the southwest, they must disintegrate for lack of munitions. There is no force to resist me, and I see no reasonable ground for fearing failures. My command is in magnificent condition."

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Wikipedia