Jim Martin
From Military Annals of Tennessee
Sat Feb 10 16:18:08 2001


Quinn,

This is from "The Military Annals of Tennessee Confederate. First Series: Embracing a Review of Military Operations with Regimental Histories and Memorial Rolls". Though it is a publication about Tennessee units, perhaps it will give you some additional information about this little-known regiment.
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First Ala., Tenn., and Miss. Infantry
By Alpheus Baker, Louisville, Ky.

I Was a Captain in the First Alabama Regiment, at Pensacola--Col. Henry D. Clayton, afterward Major-general--when I received a telegram in December, 1861, from Fort Pillow, Tenn., informing me that I had been elected Colonel of a regiment just organized there. I accepted, and went to Fort Pillow a short time before Christmas. I found there a regiment composed of four Alabama, four Tennessee, and two Mississippi companies. Col. Wm. T. Avery, of Tennessee, was Lieutenant-colonel, and -- Cansler, of Mississippi, Major. The four Tennessee companies were the following:

Co. A: Composed almost entirely of Irishmen. Enlisted in Memphis, Tenn. Joseph Barbiere, of Memphis, Captain; -- Brooks, First Lieutenant; T. J. Spain, Second Lieutenant. The other officers I cannot recollect.

Co. H: John R. Farabee, of Memphis, Captain. Names of the other officers not remembered. Company enlisted in Shelby county, Tennessee.

Co. G: Captain, J. L. Morphis; First Lieutenant, W. J. McAlpine. Company enlisted in McNairy county, Tenn.

Co. K: Captain's name forgotten. First Lieutenant, James Rogers; Second Lieutenant, A. M. Duncan. Company enlisted in the county in Tennessee in which is Jenkins's Depot.

A. S. Levy, of Memphis, was Quartermaster, and L. D. F. McVay, of Pocahontas, McNairy county, Tenn., Commissary of the regiment.

By a compromise the regiment was called the "First Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi Regiment." It did garrison duty at Fort Pillow, Tenn., of which Col. L. M. Walker, of Memphis, was commandant, until Feb. 26, 1862, when it was ordered to New Madrid, Mo. It was poorly armed, and I remember that on going up the river on the "Vicksburg" from Fort Pillow, and expecting to meet the enemy at New Madrid, we sat up all night molding bullets and folding powder in papers, as a druggist would medicine, for cartridges. At New Madrid, in a fortification which we erected by building a breastwork from St. John's Bayou to the Mississippi River, we were besieged by a vastly superior force under Gen. John Pope until the night of Thursday, March 13, 1862, when we evacuated New Madrid, crossing the river in the steamer "De Soto" to the Kentucky shore.

We were engaged in attempting to hold Island No. 10 until April 8, being first under the command of Gen. L. M. Walker, then Gen. A. P. McCown, and lastly Gen. W. W. Mackall (pronounced M?kle), who surrendered to Gen. Pope on the last-named day. The men went to Camp Douglas as prisoners of war, and the officers first to Camp Chase and then to Johnson's Island. These were exchanged at Vicksburg, and upon re"rganization went into some Tennessee regiment. The remainder of the companies went into a regiment first called the Fiftieth Alabama and afterward the Fifty-fourth Alabama, of which I was Colonel. I kept a journal, in which are preserved many things which I am sure, however creditable to the endurance and courage of those brave men, could not go into so condensed a sketch as this must necessarily be.

• Isham D. Crews — Quinn Elliott, Tue Feb 13 18:56