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The Battle of Columbus, Georgia (April 16, 1865), also known as the Battle of Girard, Alabama (now Phenix City, Alabama) was the last conflict in the campaign through Alabama and Georgia known as Wilson's Raid. Several sources have held that this was the last battle of the war.〔(Richard Gardiner, "The Last Battle of the Civil War and Its Preservation," ''Journal of America's Military Past'' XXXVIII (Summer 2013), 5–22 )〕〔(Charles Misulia, ''Columbus, Georgia 1865: The Last True Battle of the Civil War'' )〕〔(Journal of the Military Service Institution, Vol. 56, p. 359-375 )〕〔(Daniel Bellware, "The Last Battle of the Civil War" )〕〔(Journal of the United States Cavalry Association, Vol. 18; Colonel Theodore Allen, "The Last Battle of the Civil War" )〕〔(The Last Battlefield of the Civil War )〕 The Georgia state government officially declared this battle the "last battle of the war between the states."〔(Acts and Resolutions of the Georgia General Assembly )〕〔In Brevet Major General Emory Upton's May 30, 1865 report for his division in the Wilson Raid, in the ''Official Records'', he refers to the Battle of Columbus as the "closing conflict of the war." (Official Records, I:49, Part One, p. 475. ) It is not apparent whether this is for his division only but Brevet Major General John T Croxton's division engaged in the later Battle of Munford. The Battle of Boykin's Mill as well as the Battle of Palmito Ranch and several other small actions took place later than the Columbus Battle.〕〔Some have argued that this was the last battle of the American Civil War while the mainstream tends to give this designation to the Battle of Palmito Ranch.〕 ==Events leading to the battle== After the Union victory in the Battle of Nashville (December 15–16, 1864), Union General George H. Thomas ordered General James H. Wilson to march into the heart of the Deep South and bring the Confederacy to its knees by destroying their supply centers at Selma, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia. Wilson left Gravelly Springs, Alabama, on March 22, 1865, heading for Selma, a major Confederate manufacturing and supply center. The Battle of Selma was fought on April 2, 1865, against the highly skilled leadership of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose men by now were hopelessly outnumbered by the invaders. The battle took place on the same day the Confederate capital of Richmond fell to the army of General Ulysses S. Grant. Forrest managed to inflict heavy casualties on the attackers, but Wilson's raiders finally managed to break through the defenses and captured Selma by 7 p.m. that evening. Wilson's men then destroyed all the military supplies and looted the city before moving on. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, but Confederate General Johnston's army was still intact, as were the armies in the Trans-Mississippi theater. Also, because of the lack of communications, General Wilson was not aware of Lee's surrender. They continued their raid of destruction. On April 12, 1865, Wilson's men marched into the former Confederate capital of Montgomery, Alabama, without more than token resistance from the Confederates. Wilson's next target was the manufacturing city of Columbus, Georgia, the largest-surviving supply city in the South. Columbus was second only to Richmond, Virginia in providing the industrial support for the war, and Richmond had now been taken. Columbus also was on the Chattahoochee River, where there was a major naval construction facility. A new ironclad, the CSS ''Muscogee'', had been completed, and was docked at Columbus waiting to be launched. The President of the United States was shot in Washington on Good Friday, April 14, but this was also unknown to Wilson and his raiders. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Columbus (1865)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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