Jim Martin
Glad you enjoyed my website!
Sun Apr 8 11:23:34 2001



Hi Glenn,

Thanks for the kind words about the 5th Alabama Battalion website. I started this website after researching my wife's family genealogy and found her gg-grandfather, Sergeant L.T. Ormond was a member of this "little" unit. The more I read of their war record and that of Archer's Brigade the more I was overwhelmed by their "uncanny" ability or curse to be at the center of many of the most important battles of Lee's Army.

I'm currently attempt to "root out" some additional information about this unit, namely, their participation in the battle of the Wilderness. By the time of the Wilderness, the "5th" had been detached from Archer's Brigade and acted as the Provost Guard of A. P. Hill's III Corps, ANV. Their duties should've been confined by this time to collecting stragglers and shirkers during battles and returning them to the front. Strictly by circumstance, they found themselves on the morning of May 6, 1864 at a point where Hancock had breached the lines of the III Corps and threatened to cut the Confederate in two, prior to the arrival of Longstreet's I Corps. In a desperate counterattack the Confederates, after sending "Lee to the Rear" (a famous scene from history), drove Hancock's men back accompanied by the 5th Alabama Battalion (125-150 men)"who went in yelling and screaming". I'm trying to accurately "source" this account right now to update the 5th Alabama Battalion website. Check back over the next few weeks, as I'll be adding additional information to the rosters, battle accounts and the Appomattox Paroles.

Jim Martin