Columbus, Georgia, 1865: The Last True Battle of the Civil War (review)

July 2011 239 efitted by including maps: regional ones of states featuring a plantation’s location and diagrams showing the relationship between the plantation and such topographical features as rivers, mountains, and the Atlantic Ocean in order to help readers ascertain why certain crops such as indigo or “Sea Island” cotton were cultivated at specific plantations. Lost Plantations of the South provides more than a survey of the hundreds of plantations that have been lost in the last 150 years; it is also a cautionary tale of preservation. Matrana gives us numerous examples of both hostility and apathy toward the preservation of the built heritage of the American South. Through his research and writings, he makes a compelling argument that if we do not actively preserve the landmarks of the South we will lose our identity as southerners. Paul Hardin Kapp University of Illinois Columbus, Georgia, 1865: The Last True Battle of the Civil War. By Charles A. Misulia. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010. xv, 335 pp. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-8173-1676-1. In Columbus, Georgia, 1865, Charles A. Misulia recreates a daily, and at times hourly, account of Union Maj. Gen. James Wilson’s cavalry campaign that culminated at the battle of Columbus on April 16, 1865, a week after Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. In what Misulia believes to be the last battle of the Civil War, the fighting in Columbus proved to be little more than a waste of life and needless destruction of property. A lack of communication and the nature of Wilson’s campaign made it difficult for western commanders on both sides to maintain reliable contact with the outside world. Wilson’s eagerness to prove the worth of Union cavalry in the western theater after years of poor performance and lackluster results led him on an ambitious campaign that started in northern Alabama and continued to Montgomery and Selma before ending in Columbus, a large industrial town that supplied war material to the Confederacy. Following the lead of William T. Sherman, Wilson hoped to break the will of southerners by attacking military objectives as well as civilian targets. His plan worked. Georgians watched in horror as Wilson’s men moved through Alabama with little resistance. A ragtag band of the alabama review 240 state militia, Confederate soldiers, and anybody else willing to fight for a dead cause gathered in Columbus and prepared for battle. Ultimately the engagement proved to be a minor affair compared to previous battles . Misulia correctly notes, however, that although minor in the grand scheme of the war, the battle of Columbus proved to be devastating for those living in and near the city. The physical destruction created by the fighting and subsequent looting hindered the South’s postwar recovery. Residents of Columbus eventually rebuilt their city, but Misulia wonders what might have been if city leaders had just surrendered to Wilson or if news of Lee’s surrender had arrived one day earlier—all good questions to ponder. Although the book lacks prewar context, it does offer excellent postwar analysis for why cities like Columbus later embraced the New South movement as a remedy for wartime destruction. Misulia’s excellent research and clear prose make for an enjoyable and instructive read. His narrative clearly follows the action from Alabama to Georgia and then focuses on Columbus. His passion for the subject helps the story, and his work, if viewed as local history, is outstanding . Yet these strengths sometimes become weaknesses when the reader begins to search for larger meaning and context. Misulia fails to explain fully why a last battle designation matters. Fort Sumter and the city of Charleston are important to the story of the Civil War because John C. Calhoun and other early secessionists made the opening battle of the Civil War a logical place to start. But Columbus, the site of the last battle, could have easily been Selma or Montgomery. There was no predestined reason why Wilson made his way to Columbus other than that it was in front of him. Another weakness, perhaps more disturbing in the era of wrongheaded debates over black...