Stafforda
Veteran
The 15th Regiment of Alabama Infantry was a Confederate volunteer infantry unit from the state of Alabama during the American Civil War. Recruited from six counties in the southeastern part of the state, it fought mostly with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, though it also saw brief service with Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee before returning to Virginia for the duration of the war. Out of 1958 men listed on the regimental rolls throughout the conflict, 261 are known to have fallen in battle, with sources listing an additional 416 deaths due to disease, 218 were captured (46 died), 66 deserted and 61 were transferred or discharged.[3] By the end of the war, only 170 men remained to be paroled.[4]
The 15th Alabama is most famous for being the regiment that confronted the 20th Maine on Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Despite several ferocious assaults, the 15th Alabama was ultimately unable to dislodge the Union troops, and was eventually forced to retreat in the face of a desperate bayonet charge led by the 20th Maine's commander, Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain.[5] This assault was vividly recreated in Ronald F. Maxwell's 1993 film Gettysburg.
Recruitment
The 15th Alabama was organized by James Cantey, a planter originally from South Carolina, who was residing in Russell County, Alabama at the outset of the Civil War. "Cantey's Rifles" formed at Ft. Mitchell, on the Chattahoochee River, in May 1861. Cantey's company was joined by ten other militia companies, all of which were sworn into state service by governor Andrew B. Moore on July 3, 1861, with Cantey as Regimental Commander.[2]
One of these companies, from Henry County, was formed by William C. Oates, a lawyer and newspaperman from Abbeville. Oates, who would later command the whole regiment at Little Round Top, put together a company composed mostly of Irishmen recruited from the area, calling them "Henry Pioneers" or "Henry County Pioneers". Other observers, after seeing their colorful uniforms (bright red shirts, with Richmond grey frock coats and trousers), dubbed them "Oates' Zouaves".[6]
According to one source, the youngest private in the 15th Alabama was only thirteen years old; the oldest, Edmond Shepherd, was seventy.[7]
Ranks
Officers
Major
Captain
1st Lt.
2nd Lt.
NCO
Sergeant Major
1st Sergeant
Ordnance Sergeant
Sergeant
Corporal
Enlisted
Private 1st Class
Private 2nd Class
Private
Volunteer
Major
Captain
1st Lt.
2nd Lt.
NCO
Sergeant Major
1st Sergeant
Ordnance Sergeant
Sergeant
Corporal
Enlisted
Private 1st Class
Private 2nd Class
Private
Volunteer
Roster
Under Construction
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