Alan J. Pitts
Re: Spanish Ft./Blakeley
Tue May 29 10:28:47 2001


Years ago someone who had an ancestor in the 18th Alabama asked me to write a paper on the regiment. I remember learning about several things: their successful attack on the first day at Chickamauga; climbing down from Lookout Mountain in total darkness due to a lunar eclipse; the forlorn defense of Rossville Gap; the bloody failure at Resaca, their defense of the Confederate right at Nashville, and escape on the treadway at Spanish Fort. Unfortunately this was long before I had a PC or a word processor, and my copy of the paper was lost during a move some time ago.

Most of my sources should be available to you. These are the Official Records and Confederate Veteran Magazine. At the time our wonderful library director at the Southern Department here in Birmingham had just acquired bound reprints of the mazagine with a cumulative index. There are quite a few references to the 36th Alabama.

However, there's a quick and easy way to learn more than most casual researchers. Regimental research such as you describe should be approached from a brigade perspective. In other words, learn as much as you can about the other regiments in your ancestor's brigade. Most people are disappointed (as you seem to be) in what they find about an ancestor's unit because so little is available. However, you can expand your scope four to five times simply by checking other regiments in your ancestor's brigade. Unlike their Federal counterparts, Confederate brigades usually remained togther during the last half of the war, so what you learn about one regiment often applies to all.

Just use common sense. The 18th Alabama fought at Shiloh, but we can't assume the 36th Alabama was involved because it hadn't been organized yet. History of the 32nd & 58th Alabama is interesting, but doesn't apply to Clayton's/Holtzclaw's Brigade until just after the Battle of Chickamauga. On the other hand, the Pelham Cadets were attached to Holtzclaw's Brigade after Spanish Fort, and the last marching orders for the brigade are filed with historical papers of the Pelham Cadets at the ADAH in Montgomery. I hope you benefit from this approach.

Are you familiar with the strange career of Capt. John B. Jordan of Co. "G", 36th Alabama? I corresponded with a descendant some time back. Capt. Jordan crossed over to the enemy near Atlanta on Aug. 12, 1864, providing several pages of information when interviewed by his captors. Confederates dropped him from the rolls as a deserter on Sept. 5, 1864.

Capt. Jordan was released at Louisville, KY on Sept. 26, 1864, and eventually made his way to Canada. He boarded a ship at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and arrived in Wilmington NC aboard a blockade runner on Dec. 6, 1864. Jordan reported to his brigade near Mobile, explaining that he had been captured on the picket line and had not deserted. There are several pages of testimony in his record on this incident. During February of 1865 General Maury determind that the good of service would not include a court martial, so the matter was dropped and Jordan was reinstated. He turned himself over the Federals (again) at Mobile on Apr. 19, 1865.