Alan J. Pitts
Re: 20th AL Inf
Fri Mar 30 22:32:39 2001


Someone asked about this company within the past few days. Your ancestor enlisted when the company organized. Here's how my notes on the company and its captains look:

Company “H” of Perry and Bibb Counties “Perry and Bibb Liners”

John Poston Peterson. Resigned November 18, 1861. Later appointed Assistant Surgeon.
Samuel W. Davidson, Jr. Promoted Captain November 26, 1861. Surrendered at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 4, 1863; exchanged there on July 8, 1863. Paroled at Centreville, Alabama, May 14, 1865, as a supernumary officer.

This command formed at Bethel Church, near Brent, Alabama. Members were accepted in state service at Marion, Alabama, September 10, 1861, and mustered in Confederate service at Montgomery, Alabama, on September 16, 1861. Survivors surrendered at Salisbury, North Carolina, as part of Company “F”, consolidated 20th Alabama Infantry Regiment.

Pvt. Fikes was with his regiment at Mobile, then to east Tennessee , to Kentucky and back through Cumberland Gap, then to Jackson, Miss. by rail through Chattanooga, Atlanta, Montgomery and Meridian. The regiment was in the thick of deserate fighting at Port Gibson Miss (May 1, 1863) and Champion Hill (May 16, 1863), prior to the siege of Vicksburg. Your ancestor surrendered and was paroled with Captain Davidson at Vicksburg. He and other remaining members were furloughed for a brief time at home at Enterprise, Miss. July 22, 1863.

Afterwards the 20th Alabama served in a brigade commanded by General Edmund W. Pettus in the Army of Tennessee. They served on Lookout Mtn., Missionary Ridge, followed by the Atlanta and Nashville Campaigns. Your ancestor appears on a list of men captured by Wilson's Cavalry Corps in Alabama during April of 1865. That could mean that he was invoved in any of the final actions of the war, from Selma (Apr. 2, 1865) to Girard (Apr. 16, 1865). Perhaps a pension record would tell the rest of his story. You can request a copy of his application from the Alabama Department of Archives and History. If he lived in Alabama in 1907, he might well have been recorded on the veterans census of that year. You need to know his home county at that time so you can check the right set of records.