The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-05

In compliance with your assignment of papers to be read at this meeting of the Chapter, I respectfully submit the following upon the soldiers of the Confederate States Armies, But more particularly the soldiers from Alabama who did so much to make glorious the achievements. of all the armies which so heroiciy carried through four years of war the stainless banner of the Southern Confederacy.
 The history of the various regi- ] ments. and other military organiza- tions, raised during our Civil War, not only of this State. but of each and all the States of the South which formed the Confederate States of America. Is so incomplete. and imperfect, as to be surprising, if not sufficient to convist I us all of criminal neglect of duty to i the memory of the valiant host which ] formed the Confederate armies from 1861 to 1865. Alabama made an effork by Act of the Legislature in 1883 to organizations in the Southern armies
 In compliance with that act Gov. Thos. H. Watts, Alabama's great War Gov ernor, appointed Col. Wm. H. Fuller, superintendent of Army Records" He faithfully discharged HAS duty as such superintendent, and compiled a his- tory of all the military organizations from Alabama, but unfortunately in 1865 when Montgomery. Alabama, was | evacuated and many of our State records were sent to Columbus, Georgia, the report of Col. Fuller which gave \ this history was lost, so that but lit- tie Is known of the various companies, or regiments, either of the artillery, cavalry or infantry, which constituted
 Alabama's quota to the Confederate Armies A history of the lst Alabama | Tn rrfk hxy
 Prof E. Y. McMorries and Gen. w. c. Gates has written a history of the 18th Alabama Infantry, C. s. A., and also that of some other organizations.
 1 With these exceptions. the history of the gallant Alabamians, who were so conspicuous upon every important | battlefield of the Civil War is almost a blank. Of the sixty-five regiments of infantry furnished by Alabama from 1861 to 1865 as shown by the records at Montgomery, Alabama, there are three, to-wit: the 5Oth, the Sand. and the 64th regiments of which there is no record at all, save the fact these regiments were raised. and given the above numbers respectively. Ahere are only twenty-five of these regiments where the number of officers and men
 are given. Thirty-seven of these regiments have no other record than that of the date and place of their organization. and of entry into service, with name of the respective colonels.
 Of the twelve cavalry regiments from Alabama there is no record of the nVtnber of officers or men, nor of the section of the State where raised.
 The names of all the Coloneis are given, but no date or place where the I1th and 18th Alabama Cavalry regi- ments were organized.
 There was one regiment of Alabama artillery organized at Mobile in Feb- ruary 1881, Robert Y. Forsyth, Colonel and twenty-one batteries of Artillery, And seven battalions of infantry not
 attached to any regiment Most of the commanding officers of these com
 panies, and battalions are given. Be-
 side the above there were some com mands of Home Guards" organized in the latter part of the war. These
 were Alabama's volunteers This State also furnished five regiments which
 were known and numbered as Con-
 federate regiments and one battalion l known as the 1st Confederate battal-
 ion. These last organizations were distinct from the volunteers and were enlisted not by Alabama. but by Con- federate States authority. From pre- sent obtainable data the total of all the organizations, can only be ap-
 proximately given. Gov. Lewis b. Par sons in his proclamation or July, 1Sb0, gives the number of soldiers furnished lby Alabama to the Confederate Armies las 122.0O0. Of these 35,o00 were killed. or died, while about 10000 were wound
 ed leaving only about i7,O0O who pas sed unscathed through the ordeal oi
 war.
 Gen W. c oates in his book
 gives the number of Confederate
 soldiers from Alabama at 102 GOO with ten Major-Generals. and ltwenty-fve Brigader- He
 also says that Alabama furnished S. l0OO Union soldiers. The population oi Alahama in 1860 was 962,271, of which 52s. .271 were whites, and 436,00t
 negroes, taking these estimates ol Gov. Parsons. and Gen. Oates as ap-
 proximately correct, we have the start ling fact that during the four years
 of our Civil War one fifth of the white population of Alabama was in the Con- sederate armies, and taking the whole
 nonulation one in every nine was s
 soidier The other Southern States
 were not far behind in this respect North Carolina by reason of greater
 ponulAtion furnlshed more soldiers