An Easter Battle For the Bridges of Columbus

On April 16th 1865, Easter Sunday, the last large scale engagement of the American Civil War was fought in Columbus, GA. Columbus is known to most current service members as the town immediately outside the gates of Fort Benning. US Army Fort Benning itself is the home of the Infantry branch, and more recently has become home to the Armor Branch, morphing into the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE).

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Much like the Armor branch invaded Fort Benning in 2010 with fire, maneuver, and shock effect, Federal cavalrymen invaded the town of Columbus in 1865. While this was after both the official end of the war, and even the assassination of President Lincoln, news had not yet reached the combatants who though the game was still afoot. General Wilson had been tasked with leading his cavalry troops through the South in order to destroy manufacturing capacity and bring the teetering confederacy to its knees.

They were generally successful in this, burning or otherwise destroying foundries, powder mills, naval yards, and other military facilities. On April 16th the Union cavalry arrived in Girard, Alabama (now the lovely Phenix City), just across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus.

The Confederates managed to defend and then burn a lower bridge, preventing a swift Union crossing. As the sun was setting the rebel general prepared for what he thought would be a "decided fight" on the next day. But the federal forces were not going to wait that long. ​

General Wilson instead only waited until 8pm, with the sun fully set, and launched a cavalry attack against the upper bridge. Union forces eventually pushed the rebels back across the bridge, and in doing so the forces became intermingled. This prevented rebel cannons from being able to fire their canister down the length of the bridge, and the rebel forces were ultimately overran and dispersed. The most notable pieces of military equipment destroyed was the naval facility of Port Columbus, as well as two Confederate ironclads (one burned, one scuttled).

A Generally Good Carbine
The two Union cavalry units in the thick of the fighting were the 3rd and 4th Iowa. The 3rd Iowa was armed with the Burnside Carbine, a well-worn variant of which is pictured here. The Burnside (named after its inventor Ambrose Burnside of both facial hair and Union generalship fame) was a pre-civil war take on a metallic cartridge, breech loading weapon suitable for cavalry use. Fortunately ol' Ambrose was a better weapon designer than he was a general, and the carbine is remarkably serviceable for an ALMOST self contained cartridge system.

The weapon uses brass cones filled with blackpowder and topped with a .54 caliber conical projectile. This is inserted bullet up in the rotating breech, and then levered into position. Once the hammer is cocked a percussion cap can then be placed on the nipple, and the weapon fired. The brass shell must then be manually extracted by the firer (often by using another spent casing) before another round can be loaded. The carbine is remarkably handy and light, and it is easy to see why it was one of the more widely used designs in the war. As pictured it has a flip up sight calibrated to an extremely optimistic 500 yards, although that presumably was intended for volley-type fire.

​A Handy Blade For Close-In Work
Despite the Burnside being quite fast to fire (comparatively for the era of course), any good cavalryman needs a handy saber at his side for the inevitable close-in work. I couldn't find exactly what the men of the 3rd Iowa carried, but it was likely the Model 1860 Light Cavalry Saber. The saber, weighing in at 2.25lbs with a length of 41 inches, served primarily as a slashing weapon and provided the mounted trooper with the reach necessary to strike either targets mounted on the ground, or those on horseback. This particular sword was made in Solingen, Germany and imported into the states by Henry Boker. Today Solingen is still a renowned blade making center, while the Boker company makes quality edged weapons / tools -- although it seems they have mostly moved towards the pocketknife market!