Hayes Lowe
Company J (very long)
Thu Nov 16 13:46:22 2000


My reading of that is that this was a Confederate company raised by William Jasper Matthews, as indicated by the conjuctive "but".

Below, you will find a list of Confederate regiments/battalions having one or more companies formed in Jackson County.

1st Confederate Inf Battalion... formed from old 2d AL Inf Regiment. [not a likely prospect, as Battalions usually only had 4 or 5 companies, A-E or F.]
2d AL Inf Regiment... disbanded 1862. [Definitely not Co. B or C.]
3d Confederate Cav Regiment [Definitely not Co. A]
4th (Russell's) AL Cav Regiment... formed around old 4th Al Bn. [Company E, Capt. Flavius J. Graham; Co. G, Capt. Henry F. Smith]
4th AL Inf Regiment [Co. K, several Capts., none matching Matthews]
6th AL Inf Regiment [Co. F, Capt. William T. Gunter, Co. I, Capt. William L. Gordon]
7th AL Inf Regiment... disbanded April 1862. [Definitely not Co. K.]
9th AL Inf Regiment [Co. B, Capt. Jeremiah Henry Johnston Williams]
12th AL Cav Regiment... formed around old 12th AL Bn. Consolidated with 1st AL Cav Regiment, late 1862. [No further info found regarding Capts.]
12th AL Inf Regiment [Co. G, Capt. A. S. Bibb]
18th AL Cav Battalion, Dismounted... attached to 33d AL Inf Regiment. [No further info found regarding Capts.]
26-50th AL Inf Regiment [Co. C, formerly Co. F of the 2nd Bn. Capt. Lemuel G. Meade]
49th AL Inf Regiment [Co. ?, Capt. Wm. R. Coffey]
55th AL Inf Regiment [No further info found on Capts.]
Waddell's AL Battery [ Capt. James F. Waddell of Russell Co.]

As you can see, that leaves the possibility that he may have raised a company in the following Confederate regiments/battalions:

2nd Ala. Inf.
3rd Confederate Cav.
7th Ala. Inf.
12th Ala. Cav.
18th Ala. Cav. Battalion
55th Ala. Inf.

Hopefully this narrows it down a bit for you on the Confederate side. Follows are possibilities for the Union side:

1st Alabama & Tennessee Vedette Cavalry, U .S., Companies A, B, C, G and H were from Ala., some or all may have been from Jackson County. However, Capts. of the 1st Vedette were:   Ephraim Latham, George F. Allen, Calvin Brixey, James H. Shannon, and Henry R. Jordan. Matthews is not found amoung these Capts.

1st Ala. Cav., U.S. [Capts. not identified on the list that I found, but the only Matthews listed was a James Mathews, rank not listed. There was also a Mathis who was not a match.]

I also checked the Captains of the four U.S.C.T. (United Stated Colored Troops) formed in Alabama. These Captains are well documented, and he is not listed amoung them.

That pretty much rules out the Union Army possibility entirely. But I must add that if a man raised a company, on either side, he was not guaranteed to be the Captain. He almost always was, though, unless he was totally unfit or very much disliked; or he was simply a recruiting officer.

By the way, Paul Richard Matthews, at prm@hiwaay.net, states that William Jasper Matthew [Mathis/Mathews] was killed in the Civil War. He may know more about him.


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