The rail junction of West Point was one of the two Chattahoochee River crossings, which General James H. Wilson planned to destroy after capturing Montgomery, Alabama.

Dividing his army, he detailed Colonel Oscar Hugh La Grange to attack West Point, while he himself moved downriver to instigate the Battle of Columbus, to take that important Confederate manufacturing center.

Union artillery and dismounted cavalry, armed with Spencer repeater-carbines, soon forced the garrison to surrender, Tyler being shot dead by a sniper, and becoming the last Confederate General killed.

He telegraphed Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas:[1] If I can now destroy arsenals and supplies at Columbus and divide their army in the southwest, they must disintegrate for lack of munitions.

The Federal battery set up half a mile away on Ward's Hill and began shelling the redoubt while cavalrymen dismounted to serve as skirmishers and invest the fort.

[5][6] As the Federals sniped at the Confederate artillerists attempting to man their pieces, Col. La Grange hoped to use the distraction to secure his primary objective, the bridge span, before it could be burned by the rebels.

Charging across the bridge the riders encountered a gap where planks had been removed, but were able to spur their horses over and overcome the Confederate defenders on the east side of the Chattahoochee River.

[5] The garrison commander's attention was drawn to fire from nearby structures, which Tyler had been urged to burn before the engagement, but had spared because he did not believe the owners could withstand the loss.

According to a participant Tyler bravely exposed himself to examine the battlefield and was quickly shot dead by a sniper who was operating from a nearby cottage.

A cavalry bugle sounded a final charge as the Union soldiers stormed over the embankment, and the fort immediately surrendered.

[11][12] Before the cars were fired, some foodstuffs were removed and given to the mayor of West Point to feed the wounded of both sides as well as destitute citizens.