Historian Ezra Warner noted that the severe wound and subsequent amputation left Tyler in a quandary. ‘Tyler apparently had no home to go to while recovering from his wound,’ Warner wrote, ‘not even the home of a friend. Instead, he went to West Point, Georgia, and its small Confederate hospital where, it is presumed, he knew no one.’ It was there, while recovering from his wound on February 24, 1864, that Tyler was named a brigadier general. General Joseph E. Johnston, who had replaced Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee, wrote, ‘It is reported that Colonel Tyler has been promoted….It will be long before he can return to duty.’ In fact, Tyler would never return to the Army of Tennessee.

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During the winter of 1864-65, Tyler remained in West Point, a town that one Confederate called a ‘plucky little city,’ near the Alabama line. Although Tyler was far from Bragg’s former army, he remained involved in its politics. On January 22, 1865, he wrote Bragg, ‘Amidst all the excitement, disaster and disappointment of the past few weeks, I have anxiously been looking for something that would justify a hope and belief that you would once more be placed in command of the grand old Army of Tenn.’ He informed Bragg that he was ‘infinitely the superior of any Genl. The Confederacy can boast of.’ Tyler added, ‘I do Esteem you as a peerless Commander, the gallant Soldier, the Self Sacrificing Patriot — My beau ideal of a soldier.’ It appears that Tyler was one of the few who shared those sentiments, perhaps one of the few friends Bragg had left in the service. Bragg would never again command the Army of Tennessee, although he saw service in North Carolina under Johnston.

Despite his disabling wound, Tyler led an active social life (and may even have found love) while convalescing in West Point. On January 6, 1865, he sent a note to Miss Sallie Fanny Reid, who lived at a home called Sunny Villa. ‘Compliments of General Tyler,’ he wrote, ‘and would be delighted with the company of Miss Reid (if agreeable to her) to LaGrange this evening to a party to be given by Miss Bell.’ One Confederate who knew Tyler in West Point recalled, ‘The `belle of Georgia,’ Miss Sallie Fannie Reid, one of the most entertaining and brilliant conversationalists I ever met, was a fascination to Gen. Tyler.’ On the night of April 15, Tyler presented his spurs and a gold-headed cane to Miss Reid during a party that both attended. It would be the general’s last soiree.

The evening’s festivities would have been dampened had the guests known that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Va., on April 9. Not until weeks later, on April 26, would Johnston surrender the Army of Tennessee to General William Tecumseh Sherman. News of the Confederacy’s faltering fortunes had not yet reached west central Georgia.

As early as October 1, 1864, Tyler had been ordered to hold West Point if Northern troops approached the town. General John Bell Hood, the last commander of the Army of Tennessee, directed Tyler ‘to defend the place with all the forces at your command and take the best care you can of our railroad transportation.’ Confederate Lieutenant L.B. McFarland, a member of the 9th Tennessee Infantry who arrived at West Point on the morning of April 16, 1865, appreciated the importance of this locale:

I knew that there were a number of hospitals there, with many convalescents, and that large hospital stores were then crossing the Chattahoochee River at this point. So to delay the enemy was important.

Besides, just the year previous I had been in the hospital with pneumonia at LaGrange, Ga., just east of West Point, and during my convalescence had experienced the generous hospitality of its people and made many friends, and I could not miss the opportunity to aid in the defense of those kind people and hospitable homes.

The Southerners at West Point were threatened from several directions. As Yankee troops entered the region, Union Maj. Gen. James Wilson sent a cavalry brigade to West Point to capture the bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River, while he and the remainder of his command moved on Columbus. Also roving steadily but heading toward West Point was the Federal brigade led by Colonel Oscar LaGrange. The unit consisted of the 2nd and 4th Indiana Cavalries, the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, the 7th Kentucky Cavalry, and the 18th Indiana Battery.

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