William F. Fox, Lt. Col. U. S. V., Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865: A Treatise on the extent and nature of the mortuary losses in the Union regiments, with full and exhaustive statistics compiled from the official records on file in the state military bureaus and at Washington

Although the fighting may be considered as having ended at Fort Blakely and Appomattox, still, some minor affairs occurred afterwards.

Upton's Division of Cavalry, while on the Wilson Raid, had a sharp fight at Columbus, Ga., on the 16th of April, 1865, and other divisions in Wilson's Corps were engaged at West Point, Ga., on the same date; also at Macon, Ga., on the 20th of April; and at Talladega, Ala., on the 22d. In South Carolina, a provisional division under command of General E. E. Potter was engaged, with some loss of life, on the 18th of April, 1865, at Boykin's Mills. Some fighting also occurred at Palmetto Ranch, Texas, on May 13th, 1865.

But the war ended, substantially, at Appomattox, April 9, 1865. Fort Blakely, Ala., fell the same day, carried by a bloody assault.

The war commenced on the 19th of April, 1861, and was officially declared as ended, August 20, 1866.

casualties in Light Artillery.

The following list of remarkable casualties in the light artillery is given in a separate class, as the small number of men in a light battery would not give their losses a proper place among those of the larger organizations.

These artillery losses, though they may appear slight numerically, were really severe, and represent large percentages. Scarcely any of these batteries took 100 men into action; many of them did not take 75 men into battle.

The Eleventh Ohio Battery, in which the most remarkable loss occurred, took “about 105 men” into action at Iuka,¹ of whom 54 were gunners, or helped serve the guns; most of the others were drivers. Of the 54 men at the guns, 46 were killed or wounded at Iuka. General Rosecrans says, in his official report of this affair, that “Sands's Eleventh Ohio Battery, under command of Lieutenant Sears, behaved nobly. The fearful losses sustained by this battery show their unyielding obstinacy.” Also, that it “was served with unequalled bravery under circumstances of danger and exposure such as rarely, perhaps never, has fallen to the lot of one single battery during the war.” The Chief of Artillery also mentions this battery in his official report, and says, “one officer and sixteen men were killed at their pieces, several of them being bayonetted by the enemy. I cannot speak in too high terms of the bravery of the officers and the men in this battery.” The brigade commander states that “the battery fired with great rapidity and with extraordinary accuracy of aim, which threw the enemy into confusion.” This battery was in the possession of the enemy at one time during the fight, but it was soon recaptured. Three of the guns had been spiked — done by their own gunners, some of whom were killed in the act — and the wheels and caissons were badly splintered by bullets. The charge on the battery was made by two Texan regiments. The battery fired 116 rounds, mostly canister, and some of it in double charges.

Bigelow's Battery (9th Massachusetts) took 104 officers and men into its famous fight at Gettysburg.

But, 80 men seem to have been a common strength of the six-gun batteries, when in action.

The attachment of the men to their pieces developed a bravery which was heroic in the extreme; they often accepted death rather than surrender their guns.

When Loomis's famous Michigan Battery was captured at Chickamauga, Lieutenam Van Pelt, its commander, disdaining to retreat stood by the muzzle of a cannon shouting to the enemy to keep their hands off the guns, and was killed at his post.