Hayes Lowe
5th and 10th Cavalries
Thu Apr 19 10:28:57 2001


Yes, off on a tangent again! Those tangents are usually the most fun!

Unfortunately, I don’t have easy access to the 1860 census. And I haven’t found census comparison too useful, as there are so many people in Alabama at that time with the same name or initials, and often of the same age!

Here’s the Pickens County residents (at some point in their life, not necessarily at time of enlistment) who were in the 10th Ala. Cav.:

PORTER, Jesse Alonzo
Lived in Pickens and Fayette Counties. Enlisted with the 10th Alabama Cavalry, Company K.

TRAPP, A.D.
Enlisted as a Private with the 10th Alabama Cavalry, Company F. Buried at Andrews Chapel Cemetery in the Liberty community.

No others filing pensions, on the 1907 census, with cemetery markers with service in the 10th, nor family histories in the county family history books.

Here’s who I have in the 5th Ala. Cav.:

41st Ala. Inf, Co. I (formed partly in Pickens and partly in Fayette Counties)
WILKES, Mordecai D., Private, promoted to 4th Corpl. (Born 12/13/1836 in Fayette Co. Enlisted 3/1/1862 in Fayette Co. at age 23. Wounded at Chickamauga, and medically discharged on 9/20/1963. Re-enlisted as a Private in the 5th Ala. Cav. on 7/1/1864 at Eldridge, Ala. Continued in service until April 1865. Took oath at Tuscaloosa. Living in Fayette in 1907. )

40th Ala. Inf., Company G “Pickens Stars”
CASEY, Needham Bryant (Born 11/10/1844 at Raliegh, Wayne Co., N.C. Enlisted in Dec. 1863 at Demopolis in the 5th Ala. Cav., Hatch Command. Remained in that unit for nine months. Re-enlisted in Aug. 1864 at Mobile in this company. Surrendered at Greensboro, N.C. Living in Jefferson Co., Ala. in 1907.)

As you can see, even these two men had tenuous ties to Pickens County, and may have been unconnected in anyway other by the company to which they belonged. No veterans that I have found received a pension in Pickens County for service in the 5th Cav., none are shown on the 1907 census in Pickens Co., no cemetery markers with service in the 5th, nor family histories in the county family history books.

Here’s what I have on the 5th Cav. recruitment as relates to surrounding counties:

Fayette County: 5th Alabama Cavalry, Company A “Captain John R. Powell's Company”

Tuscaloosa County: 5th Alabama Cavalry, “Capt. J.M. Woodward’s Company”

I don’t see much to tie Pickens County with either of these regiments.