George Singleton remembers the men who fought and died during April 1865 skirmish at Mount Pleasant

Robert E. Lee met with Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “April seems to be a time for remembering” was originally published in the April 23, 1992 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

It seems to me that the month of April is the month for remembering. As I wrote last week about the 130-year anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh, another instance came to mind of that bitter conflict that happened much closer to home.

Monroe County was not exposed to a great deal of fighting during this dreadful time of our history. There was, however, a small skirmish, as our military historians would restate it, just a few short miles from the hub city.

Not a great deal is known about this small skirmish, but I’m sure that those who fell in battle that day, April 10, 1865, would like to be remembered just as would those who fell at Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Shiloh and many more places across our beloved land. Those members of the 15^th Confederate Regiment (Mounted), even though they might have been less trained and prepared for battle, fought and died for what they believed in.

For all practical purposes, the Civil War, or the War Between the States, or any of the other 37 or so names that it was referred to, was over. Just the day before, Gen. Robert E. Lee had met with the Union commander, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, to discuss an official surrender. The Battle for Fort Blakely, near Mobile, had also taken place on April 9, 1865. It, too, had fallen into Union hands.

But word had not gotten to the 15^th Confederate Regiment about the surrender, or if it had, they were too stubborn to believe it. Col. Henry Maubry had received word that a Union brigade was on its way north from Spanish Fort on a forage mission. This mission was to take from the local farmers horse feed and food stuff and other supplies that the Union brigade needed during their occupation and stay at Old Fort Claiborne.

As they approached the area of the Mount Pleasant community, the old men and boys that mostly made up the 15^th Confederate Regiment prepared for ambush and to stop and destroy the pillaging Union forces.

As the Union forces made their way northward, they brought with them a battery of rifled cannons, some of the latest weaponry to enter the war. These cannons were highly accurate and fast loading.

The men of the 15^th Confederates were not aware of what they were about to face. As they had planned their attack to take place as the Union forces started crossing a nearby creek, swollen by heavy rains the day before, they were unaware that the battery of rifled cannon had been trained on the large open field where they now lay in hiding.

The outcome of the ambush was a complete tragedy. The battery of Union cannons cut the poorly trained and equipped Rebels to pieces. Those few who were not killed or seriously wounded ran for their lives. Many died that day in that deep muddy field, praying for help that never arrived.

The fallen Confederates were placed in a mass burial trench a few days later, the families of those fallen dug into the mass burial and carried most of their loved ones home to be placed in family burial plots or local cemeteries. But, that’s another story.

As the evening shadows crept across the huge open field where the tragic ambush took place on April 10, 1865, I stood atop a high embankment and looked across the vast spaces below me. I tried to imagine what it had been like this date 127 years ago in the field below me. I could imagine the complete surprise of the attacking Rebels when the Union forces opened fire with the rifled cannons.

As the exploding shells fell among the surprised and confused members of the 15^th Regiment, I could almost feel the despair and hopelessness of the would-be attackers. I knew that the Confederates realized it would be useless to try and press an attack into the face of certain death.

As always, I knew that the thought of home and loved ones raced through the minds of those who had not fallen in the deadly barrage that had covered the field. And that they would do everything possible to be again with those they loved.

As I stood there on the high embankment overlooking the area below me, I felt that I might just be the only one who had remembered this tragic event in our county history. I wanted no praise or recognition for coming here, but I felt that somewhere, someplace, those who had fallen here might know that they are remembered for what they believed and the price they paid.

The evening shadows had almost covered the huge bottom below me. Only the traffic on the highway near where I stood gave any evidence that time had changed; it seemed just as it mast have been 127 years ago. The quietness that lay over the large field today was probably the same quietness that crept across the field as the cannons of death fired their last barrage.

I thought of many things that could have been done this day for those who had given their lives in the large bottom below me. I looked around, half expecting to see a wreath of flowers that someone had tossed out the window of a speeding automobile. Or perhaps someone had placed a marker to remind those who cared what had taken place here.

But there were none, only the gentle winds from the westward side of the field rippled the tall grass and newly planted pines in a faint tribute to those who fell here.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)