Alan Pitts
9th Ala. Cav. Regt.
Tue Jan 2 22:01:50 2001


The Yankees afforded Confederates of each branch of the service equal opportunities for lengthy visits in their prisoner of war camps. Whitten joined Capt. J.W. Harper's Co. "A", 14th Ala. Cav. Battn. at Shelbyville, Tenn., Feb. 1, 1863. This company had formed at Somerville on Aug. 10, 1862. On Apr. 15, 1863, the 14th and 19th Ala. battalions merged to form a cavalry regiment. Members called it the 7th, but the War Department already had a regiment by that number on file when Col. Malone applied. Records of this regiment were then filed as the 9th Ala. Cav. Regt.

Whitten was captured at Hays Ferry near Dandridge, Tenn., Dec. 24, 1863. Federal reports of this action (found in Official Records, vol. XXXI, part 1, pp. 635-639) number their own losses as 7 killed, 27 wounded & 27 captured. I found no Confederate report of this action, which took place four miles outside Dandridge on the Bull's Gap Road. Whitten was sent to prison at Rock Island, Ill., where he remained until release on June 21, 1865. At that time he gave his residence as "Summerville", Morgan County, age twenty, hazel eyes, light complexion, brown hair, 5 ft. 10 in. tall.

His service record appears on microfilm produced by the National Archives, filed with organizations raised by the State of Alabama, Malone's 9th Cavalry Regiment. You can see copies at Wallace State or in the Southern Collection, Birmingham Public Library.