Alan J. Pitts
Seeking information which doesn't exist....
Mon Apr 9 23:33:08 2001


I'm confused about your request. At the time of the battle of Ezra Church (July 28 1864) the 12th Alabama Infantry Regiment was hundreds of miles away in the upper Shenandoah Valley with General Early. The 12th Alabama Cavalry Battalion was serving in Georgia, but still some distance away from Atlanta in pursuit of Stoneman's raiders. Perhaps you could let us know where you learned about this.

Quite a number of Alabama regiments from the Army of Tennessee had the grave misfortune of fighting at Ezra Church, also called the Battle of the Poorhouse and Lickskillet Road. The unfortunate regiments included:
1st Alabama, Quarles Brigade; 17th, 26th & 29th Alabama, O'Neal's Brigade; 18th, 36th, 38th & 32nd/58th Alabama, Holtzclaw's Brigade; 37th, 40th, 42nd & 54th Alabama, Baker's Brigade; 24th, 28th & 34th Alabama, Manigault's Brigade; 19th, 22nd, 25th, 39th & 50th Ala, Deas Brigade.
If your're thinking about an Alabama regiment whose members bled and died for no reasonable military purpose at Ezra Church, it's going to be one of the above.

Descendants of a number of good Confederates might be alive today were it not for the ineptitude of Stephen D. Lee. I cannot recall a major battle in which he had an important leadership role which did not end as an abysmal failure for Southerm arms: Tupelo, Ezra Church, Jonesboro, Franklin and Nashville. While Lee cannot be held accountable for the last two, he did have a position as a corps commander at Franklin and Nashville, and the list of disasters is lengthened by naming them. Aside from the long list of casualties he created, his most troubling characteristic was a tendency to blame his troops when they failed to carry a position.

If Johnston had remained in command of the Army of Tennessee, Lee would have continued in departmental command in Mississippi where he could trouble only the resourceful Nathan Bedford Forrest. Probably the most damaging consequence to follow in the wake of Jonston's removal was introduction to the Army of Tennessee.