Ken Jons
Wood's Regiment
Wed Nov 15 12:31:51 2000


Technically, this was Wood's Confederate Cavalry Regiment, also called the 1st Cavalry or Adams' Confederate Cavalry. Stewart Sifakis lists the regiment under Mississippi and calls it Adams'-Wood's Cavalry Regiment. Clear as mud?

It was organized for the war on 15 October 1861. 1st Co. "G" became independent in April 62 and Co. "N" (!) became 2nd Co. "G" sometime later. 1st Co. "A" became an independent unit in April 1862. Co. "C", 1st "D", and 1st "M" were detached on 16 May 1862 and became Co. "A", "E", and "B", respectively, 3rd Alabama Cavalry, on 1 July 1862. 2nd Co. "M" was organized on 3 May 1862 and was subsequently assigned to this regiment. 1st Co. "A" became Co. "A", 15th Louisiana Cavalry Battalion on 26 September 1862. 2nd Co. "A" was organized from a part of Co. "K" on 1 May 1864. The regiment was surrendered by Lt. Gen'l Richard Taylor, commanding Dept. of AL, MS, and East LA, at Cironelle, AL, on 4 May 1865. First commander of the unit was Col. Wirt Adams, and Lt. Col., then Col. Robert C. Wood, jr.

James C. Matkins was enlisted in Co. "E"

Additional information from Joseph Crute's Units of the Confederate States Army indicates that Wirt Adams' Cavalry Regiment [also called 1st Mississippi Cavalry] was organized during the summer of 1861 and mustered into Confederate Service at Jackson. Its members were recruited in the counties of Claiborne, Lowndes, Tallahatchie, Warren, and Yazoo. The unit served under Chalmers, F. C. Armstrong, W. H. Jackson, W. C. Wood, and W. Adams. It confronted the Federals in KY, TN, and AL, but for the most part it fought in MS. In Dec 1861 it contained 29 officers and 400 men, and in Jan 1863, there wre 35 officers and 539 men present for duty. Few surrendered in May 1865. The field officers were Cols. Wirt Adams and Robert C. Wood, jr.; Lt. Col. Thomas Lewers; and Majors Stephen B. Cleveland, James Hagan, and Isaac F. Harrison.


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