Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume II.

[720] dark, Gen. Wilson ordered an attack; when 300 of the 3d Iowa cavalry moved forward, supported by the 4th Iowa and 10th Missouri, under a heavy fire of grape, canister, and musketry, pushed through strong abatis, and pressed back the Rebel line. Gen. Upton now sent up two companies of the 10th Missouri to seize one of the bridges leading into Columbus; which, under cover of darkness, was effected. And now Gen. Upton charged again, sweeping away all resistance; and soon the city was ours, with 1,200 prisoners, 52 field guns, and large quantities of small arms and stores, at a cost to us of barely 24 killed and wounded. Among the Rebels killed was C. A. L. Lamar, of Howell Cobb's staff, former owner and captain of the slaver Wanderer. We destroyed here the Rebel ram Jackson, mounting six 7-inch guns, burned 15 locomotives, 250 cars, 115,000 bales of cotton, &c., &c.

Lagrange's advance reached West Point at 10 A. M. this day, and found the crossing of the Chattahoochee defended by Fort Tyler, a strong, bastioned earthwork, 35 yards square, situated on a commanding hill, and mounting 4 guns. At 1 1/2 P. M., this fort was bravely assaulted on three sides; but its ditch, 12 feet wide by 10 deep, stopped our men under a withering fire of musketry and grape. Lagrange, refusing to fall back, posted sharpshooters to tranquilize the Rebel gunners while he gathered materials for bridges, over which his men sprang at the sound of the bugle; rushing over the parapet, and capturing the entire garrison--265 men. Gen. Tyler, its commander, with 18 of his men, had been killed, and 27 more severely wounded.

Simultaneously with this charge, the 4th Indiana cavalry dashed headlong through the town, secured both bridges over the Chattahoochee, drove out the slender Rebel force found there, and burned 5 engines with their trains. Early next morning, Gen. Minty, commanding (since Long's fall) the division, was on his way to Macon, as was Wilson on the Columbus road; both columns arriving on the 21st, after Wilson and Minty had both received assurances from Gen. Howell Cobb, commanding in Macon, that the war was virtually ended.

Cuxton did not arrive till the 30th. Outnumbered by Jackson in their encounter near Trion,¹ he had moved off swiftly to Johnson's ferry on the Black Warrior, 44 miles above Tuskaloosa, where he crossed and came down the west bank; surprising and capturing² Tuskaloosa, with 3 guns and 150 prisoners; destroying the military school, public works, stores, &c. Hearing nothing from Wilson or McCook, he burned the bridge over the Black Warrior, and sped south-west nearly to Eutaw; where he heard that Wirt Adams, with 2,000 cavalry, was close upon him. Too weak to fight such a force, Cuxton turned and countermarched nearly to Tuskaloosa; thence by Jasper, Mount Benson and Trionsville, to Talladega; near which, he scattered a small Rebel force under a Gen. Hill; pushing thence by Carrollton, Ga., Newnan, and Forsyth, to Macon; having, with his small force, moved 650 miles in 30 days, in entire ignorance of the position or fortunes