Last Man Out

May 13, 1865 — It was on this day that a Union soldier named John J. Williams became the last widely recognized combat casualty of the American Civil War.

Williams had spent most of the war guarding supplies, and his first real taste of battle would also be his last.

More than a month after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Brownsville, Texas, in what became known as the Battle of Palmito Ranch. During a Confederate cavalry charge, Williams was shot in the chest while attempting to reload his rifle. He died almost instantly.

Despite the Confederacy’s collapse elsewhere, Southern forces claimed a tactical victory at Palmito Ranch — one of the final ironies of a war they had already lost.