The Battle of Talledega

"....the country was filled with small parties returning home- a sadly broken down people."

Captain M.P. Thatcher recalls the Second Michigan's last battle:

Numerous battles have been written up as "the last fight of the rebellion". Without disputing in regard to the matter it is a fact, not generally known, that a battalion (the saber battalion) of the Second Michigan cavalry, under brevet Major Whittemore, charged a force (1,000 men) under General Hill, near Talladega, Alabama, on the 23d of April, 1865, and was supported by the regiment and brigade, scattering the entire Confederate force and capturing the artillery, and many prisoners. This was fourteen days after the surrender at Appomattox, and therefore quite late enough after the cessation of hostilities. The next day the country was filled with small parties returning home- a sadly broken down people.

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