The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-23
Historical Sketch of First Regiment
 Alabama Volunteers, C. $. A.. I86I-65

ability He regards this as the most cru- cial test of his physical and moral copr- age during the war.
 ITO our dismay we were landed at Point Lookout in Chesapeake Bay. a great Fed eral hospital and prison. Here we learn ed that the military operations around Petersburg had stopped this proposed ex- change. We were at Point Lookout when President Lincoln was assassinated Wilkes Booth, the assassin, retreated down the Potomac, and the negro guards over us conceived the idea that we. as prisoners had some connection with the assassination. was most reliably in formed that the white officers of this negro command had great difficulty in restraining them from butchering us. felt the danger most acutely at the time At night in my hearing a negro sentinel called out to us hush up there you d---d Rebels. or will send a. bullet 'sarching among your guts:' we were only talk ing in a low tone in our quarters.
 From Point Lookout we were sent to Fort Delaware in Delaware Bay and kept in Imprisonment until the close of the war. Myself and my brother, Captain s. D. Steedman. were released on June 2Sth, 1865. book could be written on this sub ject of imprisonment and the heroic for titude with which our First Alabama of- ficers endured their hard fate. We were cut off from all hope of deserved pro- motion in rank, which hope is dear to all soldiers
 The only consolation our friends can take in this Imprisonment of nearly two and half years is that many of us, if exchanged. would nave died on the battle field, where so many of our beloved com rades now lie in unknown graves" Regiment Assembled at Cahaba-Me-
 ridian Campaign.
 October 18th. 1863. the regiment. Major s. l.. Knox commanding, was ordered to Cahaba. Ala, and went into parole camps on a high hill two or three miles west of the town. We had not been ex- changed in accordance with the terms of our paroles, and an effort by our of- ficers to put us on dutyin violation of our praoles was bitterly resented by almost every member of the regiment.
 However. our officers having satisfac- toriiy explained the situa tion in reference to exchange, we entered upon duty. We always doubted, and still doubt, the le- gality of our exchange, and had We been recaptured might have been severely dealt with.
 November 9th the regiment left Cahaba for Meridian, Miss, spending the night in an old cotton warehouse in Selma. As the regiment marched from the ware house next morning through the streets to the depot. the effects of whiskey were much in evidence. Reaching Meridian Nov. 10th, we at once set about erecting log cabins for Winter quarters. A detach- ment of the regiment guarded railroad bridges below, the rest furnished daily guards for all outgoing and incoming trains. We were in fine health and spir- its. had full rations and comfortable clothes, drew several months pay, in- vesting it all in ''bone dried goobers" at $50 bushel. and potato pones'' at $1 a pone.
 During the Christmas holidays. General Reynolds's Arkansas brigade, which was stationed here got too much whiskey, be- came boisterous and mutinous, and our regiment with other commands was called out to restore order. For awhile the sit uation was serious, but the Arkansans were finally pacified.
 The second term of enlistment Owo years) of original members of the regi- ment having expired in January. 1864. each received thirty days furlough on re-enlisting. Companies c, H and K were ordered to Jackson Miss, Jan. 2lst,' 1864, reaching that point Jan ,23rd. The object was to capture and bring across the Pearl River a number of railroad locomotives, but the advance of General Sherman from Vicksburg thwarted this plan, and the detachment returned % Meridian.
 Mobile Bay Campaign.
 As General Shermans advance seemed to threaten Mobile, the regiment left Me ridian Feb. 14th and marched to the Tom bigbee River, embarked on steamer reach Ing Mobile Feb goth. For two weeks we did garrison duty at the forts and bat teries along the line of land defenses, but were then withdrawn and encamped on q vacant square in the resident part of the city. March 18th we set out for Port Ala bama twenty-five miles down the bay and after two days march through a fiat lonesome, piney woods country, reached our destination pitching our tents on the bay front. While here attachments of the regiment did garrison duty at Cedar Point and Fort Powell: the rest. picket duty along the beach. Leaving the com