page_title: 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment
section_title: Spring Hill
hierarchical_section_title: 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment / Back to Tennessee / Spring Hill
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Battle of Spring Hill of the American Civil War: actions in the afternoon of November 29, 1863.
context_page_description: The 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment was an infantry unit from Alabama that served in the Confederate States Army during the U.S. Civil War. Recruited from the southeastern counties of Butler, Dale, Coffee, Covington, Russell and Montgomery, it saw extensive service with the Confederate Army of Tennessee before being nearly annihilated at the Battle of Franklin in 1864. Survivors from the regiment would continue to serve until the final capitulation of General Joseph Johnston in North Carolina in 1865.
  In addition to the counties named above, the 33rd Alabama drew recruits from three modern Alabama counties that did not yet exist in 1862: Geneva County, which was then a part of Dale and Coffee counties; Crenshaw County, which would be formed from Covington and other nearby counties after the war; and Houston County, which then formed a part of Dale and Henry Counties.
  Initially assigned to the defense of Confederate forts in Pensacola Bay, Florida, the 33rd was quickly transferred to duty in the Army of Tennessee, where it saw its first significant action at the Battle of Perryville.
context_section_description: At first, Generals Thomas and Sherman did not believe that Hood would actually invade Tennessee, with a Federal army about to burn its way through Georgia. However, as it became clear that this was Hood's destination, Thomas began to take action. Ordering Major General John M. Schofield to move to Columbia on the Duck River, Thomas hoped to intercept Hood before he could seize this important crossing. Hood split his army into three columns: the 33rd and the rest of Cheatham's Corps marched in the westernmost one through seventy miles of freezing rain, sleet and bitterly cold winds toward Mt. Pleasant, where the three columns reunited and continued in the direction of Columbia. Effectively screened by Forrest's cavalry, the Confederates reached Columbia just after the Federals had arrived and started to entrench. Bold maneuvers on the part of General Forrest, combined with artillery fire and effective demonstrations by the rest of Hood's army allowed them to cross the Duck River east of town, moving north toward Spring Hill—for once, the Army of Tennessee had been able to use the same tactic Sherman had used so well against them in Georgia. Amazingly, neither side reported any casualties in this encounter, which had consisted almost entirely of feints and shelling.
  Having moved around Schofield's rapidly retreating force, Hood hoped to catch and destroy it near Spring Hill, to the north of Columbia. The Army of Tennessee moved rapidly along back-country roads and through fields and woods, with the men required to keep in ranks at all times while stragglers were dealt with severely. Forrest's cavalry arrived at the crossroads around 11:30 am on November 29; there they ran into elements of the Federal IV Corps, which had rushed ahead to hold the crossing until the rest of Schofield's army could arrive. Cleburne's division arrived in the afternoon just as Forrest's men were about to exhaust their ammunition.  They immediately deployed for an attack, with the 33rd Alabama crossing a small stream and advancing around 4:00 pm with the rest of their division toward a Federal brigade under the command of Colonel Luther Prentice Bradley. Cleburne staggered his brigades in echelon formation, with Lowrey's Brigade on the far right.  Lowrey's men engaged first, with the 33rd advancing "across a slope and across a field, [driving] the Federals from behind some rail defenses, then on up and around ... a horse lot rail fence, barn and dwelling where we were making a stand ... we followed them down a slope, where we halted and reformed the line." With Cleburne personally leading Govan's Arkansas Brigade in support, his division soon routed the Federals and advanced toward Schofield's line of march on the Columbia Pike. Here they were stopped cold by Federal artillery; as darkness fell, the entire Confederate attack ground to a halt. Although Hood planned to attack Schofield's approaching army in the morning, the Federals slipped by him in the darkness while he and his men slept, moving on to the nearby town of Franklin.  Here the 33rd and the rest of Hood's army were about to experience their worst day of the war.
caption: The Battle of Spring Hill. The 33rd Alabama was in Lowrey's Brigade
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