Hayes Lowe
Narrowing down the possibilities.
Wed Jun 20 13:00:58 2001


"Your point is well taken; however, I'm unaware of any Confederate unit turning away recruits at this stage of the war"

This is a very good point. I wasn't sure, however, that the cavalry units would still be accepting "stragglers" from the infantry units...the cavalry units had been hit pretty hard for doing this earlier in the war. By April 1865 though, I think any unit was taking anybody that they could get. I'm not sure that was the case in Jan., Feb., or March...but it could have been, I just don't know.

"Other possibilities include Musgrove's Battalion in the Marion-Fayette area, Lowe's 13th Alabama Regiment between Talladega and Guntersville, and Gilbert's Battalion north of the Tennessee River. Also Capt. May's company from Lewis' Cav. Battalion in Marshall County. There may be others."

Those are some good possibilities, but I don't know much about them...not enough to know if they were "official" or when they may have disbanded. Apparently Lowe's was never official, though.

In re-reading the vets statement, "I stayed at home awhile and then went off to the Calvary up in North Alabama and stayed with them until the war was about over.", I would discount the possibility of any units south of Scottsboro as being "up in North Alabama".

If my geography is on target, that removes all but one of these as a possibility: Gilbert's Battalion north of the Tennessee River.