Folks: For the past several days, a thread of discussion on the Alabama in the Civil War Message Board has centered on the Pleasant Ridge-Romulus Skirmish under the title "Last Confederate Victory in Alabama." It appears that our little fight may be just that. For those who have not been following this, below is a link to this thread as well as text summarizing the fight I submitted which Hayes declared to be a fitting analysis of the engagement. For those who are familiar with this thread, ignore this. <A HREF="http://history-sites.com/cgi-bin/boards/alcwmb/index.cgi?read=10429">Click here: Last Confederate Victory in Alabama</A> The "engagement along Sipsey" to which Mr. Lowe refers was the actions of April 6, 1865, between the Federal brigade of Brig. Gen. John T. Croxton, USV, and Brig. Gen. Wm Wirt Adams, CSA, in Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties. Beginning at a bridge over Sipsey two miles north of Pleasant Ridge, near the Pickens-Greene boundary, Adams cavalry began harassing attacks upon the Federal rear guard, the 6th Kentucky Cavalry. Driving the Yankees away from the bridge and nearby mills, which had been burned, after a few hours Adams got enough troops across the bridge to mount a serious attack on the Federals, driving the Kentuckians from the field in utter confusion. The commanding officer of the 6th Kentucky was separated from the retreating mass of men in the melee, and later captured by a civilian in the Pleasant Ridge area. At a ridge some miles north the 6th Kentucky may have attempted to hold back the Confederates, though unsuccessfully, and were driven further north. The 6th Kentucky was completely routed into a fleeing mass of fugitives. As word of the attack reached Croxton, two other regiments were deployed against Adams. The 2nd Michigan Cavalry found a low ridge across the main road on which two dismounted companies were employed, with mounted companies on each flank. The 8th Iowa Cavalry was on the left flank of the Michigan position. Adams attacked the 2nd Michigan in a full mounted charge which was repulsed, then twice dismounted to no avail. Heavy rain and closing darkness prevented Adams from continuing this attack. Confederate attacks on the 8th Iowa drove these Federals from their positions, and they apparently fell back in some disorder. Twenty-six troopers of the 8th were missing and made prisoner as a result of this action. After the 2nd Michigan had withdrawn from their position and continued the forced march northward Adams once again pressed the pursuit even as the rain fell and roads became impassable. About a mile south of Romulus, where the road ran along the base of a very high hill, the head of the pursuing column was ambushed by two dismounted companies of the 2nd Michigan from the hilltop. The Confederates had three killed and perhaps several wounded, halting the pursuit in confusion in the continuing rain and closing darkness. Your best sources to read about this are not easily found, and all written by the Yankees. C.C. Andrews, "The History of the Campaign of Mobile," 1867, has a final chapter which describes Croxton's raid and describes this action in some detail. Most of the information seems to come from officers of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. Marshall Thatcher's "Hundred Battles in the West," 1884, a complete history of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry, likewise treats this with much the same bias as found in Andrews, for the same reason. Croxton's O.R. report (Ser. 1, Vol. 49, Prt. 1, p 422) does not appear to be entirely factual on several points, neglecting to mention the 8th Iowa Cavalry's involvement at all and grossly understating Federal casualties. Croxton states he had thirty-four men lost, and all wounded were taken off; in fact at least fifty Yankee casualties can be documented, perhaps more, and three wounded were left to the care of Adams' surgeons (one of which was a Capt. J.H. Wilson, ironically enough). Other representations of Croxton's report seem to be at odds with those found in diaries, letters, and the report of the brigade adjutant, Capt Wm A. Sutherland. Sutherland's O.R. report (Ser. 1,Vol 49, Part 1, p 425), written shortly after the adjutant had returned to north Alabama following his detachment having been separated from the brigade. Sutherland quotes a dispatch from Croxton, which contradicts some particulars of Croxton's own report. (Sutherland's detachment burned the Pickens County courthouse in Carrollton the same day of the Adams-Croxton engagement) Naturally Adams left no report, but a letter written by a sergeant of the 18th Louisiana Cavalry Battalion, Scott's Brigade of Adams' command, described the action in detail as seen from Adams' rear (only Mississippi troops of Adams' brigade were engaged), as well as the command's movements of several days. Adams' losses were six killed and twenty-five wounded. Nearly two thousand combatants were engaged in a running cavalry fight over a distance of some twenty miles over impassable roads in heavy rain. Half of the Confederate force routed two Federal regiments, both armed to a man with Spencer carbines, and was only halted by a determined defense from well-prepared positions of a third regiment in growing darkness and heavy rain. Federal losses were 50% greater than Confederate; southern cavalry held the fields of contest at the close of fighting. That Croxton was actually driven back northward, rather than his having decided to withdraw in that direction prior to the Confederate attack, would seem to be the case from close examination of the facts. Consequently this would be a tactical as well as strategic victory for Confederate arms. This engagement is not described in most history books at all, and the works which do mention it usually do so as an aside to the destruction by Croxton's raiders of the University of Alabama. These usually call this the "Battle of Romulus," though little of the action took place near that community in Tuscaloosa County. Croxton's report seems to treat this as an inconsequential skirmish which just happened after he decided to leave Pickens County, inconvenienced by high rivers and rumors of Confederate forces twice his strength. Those writing which rely heavily on Croxton's report share this same perspective. The fact that half his brigade was routed and his losses were greater than he reported would suggest that the brigadier did more than a little alteration of facts to give this engagement a brighter shine for his career than it actually was. Croxton falsified his O.R. report, leaving out as I said the rout of the 8th Iowa Cavalry and understating his casualties. No one came out and refuted his report, and I suppose by that point no one cared. Adams certainly had nothing to gain by claiming that he had beaten Croxton after he was paroled at Gainesville. All who have written about this since have taken Croxton's report as totally truthful. Even the latest Pickens County history book simply quotes the Federal O.R. reports (Croxton's and Sutherland's) in its chapter on the Federal incursion into the county. It was only when I discovered the vast number of Iowans captured that I realized that more took place than Croxton reported. When I looked closely at diary accounts, and read Sutherland's version of the dispatch Croxton sent him late on April 6, it became clear that the First Brigade turned back to Northport on a forced march to that place as a result of Adams' attack. Croxton's report pretends that this fight was of no real consequence since he represents that the brigade had already turned back toward Northport. So heretofore this fight has been considered an unimportant skirmish, and since only the rout of the 6th Kentucky was acknowledged, and that regiment was represented by the officers of the 2nd Michigan Cav as not being armed with repeating arms, Adams' success against the Kentuckians has been minimized. The plight of the 8th Iowa Cav has been totally ignored, which actually lost men captured than the 6th Kentucky (well, maybe. Company B of the 6th lost several men who were on the Sultana, but their records do not say when they were captured, April 1 or 6. Since only a few companies were engaged at Trion, I would suspect that those 4 or 5 of Co B were captured at Pleasant Ridge on April 6. Men from all companies present for duty were captured on that date. Company E was not present for duty at this time, officers having resigned and most enlisted men deserted) The 6th Kentucky was indeed armed with Spencer carbines. The records of most of the men captured at Pleasant Ridge indicate that along with horse, pistol, saddle, and equipment, a Spencer carbine was lost by capture for these men, and deducted from their pay. The adjutant of the 8th Iowa Cav described the brigade as "1500 Spencers." Clearly all troopers of Croxton's brigade were so armed. And I could go on. Quite a volume of misrepresentations, falsehoods, and inaccurate assumptions have crept into the historical record concerning this fight in the past century. This has lead to a great deal of confusion and certainly a failure to recognize the true scope and impact of this engagement. Being called the "battle of Romulus" has not helped. No Federal or Confederate casualty is recorded at Romulus. That is simply where Croxton marched from the next day, and it is reasonable to suppose that the First Brigade camped at that place the night of April 6, actually going into camp about 11 PM. The final ambush did take place about a mile south of there. All of the larger actions, the rout of the 6th Kentucky and the stand of the 2nd Michigan, took place in what was then Pickens County. In 1867 this area south of Sipsey became Greene County when the boundary was established on the river. Scott