Gen. Grant Writes Stanton Recommending a General’s Promotion For the Union Officer Who Accepted the Final Confederate Surrender of the War East of the Mississippi River
Lieut. Colonel William C. Bartlett's unit had engaged in the last battle in the East on May 6, 1865.
The Union Army recruited two mounted infantry regiments within North Carolina, and both units were principally raised from the pro-Union western counties of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Confederate deserters also formed a fraction of these units. One was the 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, which was led by Lieut. Colonel William C....
The Union Army recruited two mounted infantry regiments within North Carolina, and both units were principally raised from the pro-Union western counties of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Confederate deserters also formed a fraction of these units. One was the 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, which was led by Lieut. Colonel William C. Bartlett, a brother-in-law of Maj. Gen. John Schofield. Bartlett and his men were involved in the last battle of the Civil War fought east of the Mississippi River.
By May of 1865, nearly all of the Confederate armies had surrendered. Among the last holdouts was Thomas's Legion, an independent force of about 500 combined white and Indian troops, under Col. William H. Thomas. When Bartlett's 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry occupied the town of Waynesville, NC, Thomas, with four companies of pro-Confederate Indian troops and a company of sharpshooters, took position in the hills around the town. Hoping to surround and capture the federal regiment, he ordered a company of some 50 sharpshooters led by Lt. Robert T. Conley to reinforce him. Conley marched by the shortest route, by way of White Sulphur Springs. In the middle of a forest, Conley unexpectedly encountered part of Bartlett's regiment. Undismayed at being outnumbered, Conley formed his men into a line and fired a volley, and then charged with bayonets. The Union force fled, leaving one dead soldier behind. That soldier was named Arwood, who is considered the last soldier killed east of the Mississippi. The next day Thomas negotiated a surrender which took place on May 14, 1865. Thus did Bartlett receive the final Confederate surrender east of the Mississippi.
His superiors sought to reward him, and General Grant suggested that he be named a brevet Brigadier General. Autograph letter signed, on his Head Quarters Armies of the United States letterhead, July 17, 1865, to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. "I would respectfully recommend the brevet promotion of Brigadier General in the volunteer service of Col. William Bartlett, 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry." The appointment was made.
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