All day on Easter Sunday, Confederate forces commanded by Col. Leon von Zinken awaited the Union Army coming from Tuskegee. Lacking enough men to hold the line they had prepared on the hills to the west, they fell back to an inner line from the mouth of Holland Creek northward through this position. With the Dillingham Street bridge left undefended, they packed it with oil-soaked cotton waste and burned it about 2 o’clock when the Federal vanguard attacked. After that effort failed, the raiders withdrew behind the hills until attacking again after dark. At 8 p.m. on April 16, 1865, in the decisive action of the last battle of the War Between the States, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson charged from the hills to the west through the center of the Confederate defensive line, broke through the defense, and pushed on to the wooden covered bridge across the river. Believing they had been cut off by the Federals, the Confederates also dashed for the bridge, and in pitch darkness both armies jammed the narrow structure with men, horses, and wagons as friend and foe became indistinguishable.