Before he was a 1st Lieutenant/Commissary/Captain he appears to have been a 3rd Corporal from a company raised in Atlanta

January 3rd, 1861
"Georgia Volunteers" company formed in Atlanta,Georgia

"It was the boast of its members, mature men for the most part, that there was not a "feather-bed soldier"
in the company."

A.J. Kennedy, Third Corporal
http://books.google.com/books?id=u0cUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA165&dq=%22A.J.Kennedy%22%22Georgia%22&hl=en&ei=06_lTfP0BMfegQeE_qTtCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=%22A.J.Kennedy%22%22Georgia%22&f=false

This company would later be designated Company "A" 2nd Regiment Infantry,4th Brigade Georgia Volunteers
And later Company "A" 19th Georgia Volunteer Infantry CSA

Genealogy Posting about A.J. Kennedy

http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/pageload.cgi?Atlanta::ga::30988.html