If you have suggestions or comments, or if you experience problems accessing parts of this site,
please send mail to jemcgee@hiwaay.net.In the interesting and ably written Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston by his son, Col. William Preston Johnston, appears a graphic description of the battle of Shiloh. He states that the Kentucky Brigade to which, at the time, the Thirty-first Alabama Regiment was attached, had been, on that day, detached from Gen. Breckenridge's Corps. and sent to the support of Gen. Hardee on our left, and there assailed a part of Gen. Sherman's Command, which was identified as McDowell's and the Thirteenth Missouri by the prisoners who were taken; and says, on page 607: "Finally, bringing up the Thirty-first Alabama Regiment, which had been held in reserve, they charged at a double quick, routing the enemy and driving them at a run from the field." The Regiment here referred to by Col. Johnston, was, subsequent to the battle of Shiloh, numbered by the War Department at Richmond as the Forty-ninth Alabama Regiment, and, thereafter, was know in the Army by that number. At the time, however, of the battle referred to, the Regiment, as stated by Col. Johnston, was known in that Army as the Thirty-first Alabama, and attached to the Kentucky Brigade, commanded by Col. Trabue, of Louisville. Col. Johnston has kindly assured me, that in a subsequent edition of his work, this error would be corrected. I think it but right and justice to the brave men from the counties of Madison, Jackson, Marshall, DeKalb and Cherokee, who composed the Forty-ninth Alabama Regiment, that this error should be corrected. And I do so without wishing, in the least, to detract from the equally gallant men who composed the Thirty-first Alabama Regiment, so ably commanded by Col. D. R. Hundley. At the time that the battle of Shiloh was fought, Col. Hundley's regiment (Thirty-first Alabama) was being organized at Talladega, and, consequently, could not have participated in that battle. I was, at the date above named, the Adjutant, and subsequently Lieutenant Colonel of the Forty-ninth Alabama Regiment, which performed many deeds as heroic as the part it acted in the ever memorable battle of Shiloh. It participated in most of the important battles with our Western Army, from Shiloh to the final surrender under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston --- and "nothing lacked in soldiership, except good fortune."
Copied from Confederate Veteran, Volume 4, 1896, page 303.
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