Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/250

Rh army of Northern Virginia; Lieut.-Col. Lewis H. Hill commanding regiment.

There were about nine regiments and three battalions of reserves, composed for the most part of very young men, about two regiments being made up of old men, and they were organized principally for the defense of Mobile and the bay forts. Some of these were, in 1864, consolidated under the command of Col. Daniel Huger, of the First reserve regiment, and the new regiment was known as the Sixty-second Alabama. Others, under Col. Olin F. Rice, of the Second reserve regiment, were known as the Sixty-third. The First battalion, also called the Fourth reserve regiment, was consolidated with the Third and Fourth battalions under Lieut.-Col. E. M. Underhill, and called the Sixty-fifth Alabama; it was employed mainly in the defenses of Mobile, though a detachment was sent to Montgomery in April, 1865, and retired before Wilson's army to Girard, where it fought with severe loss and was captured. The Sixty-second and Sixty-third fought in General Thomas' brigade at Fort Gaines and Spanish Fort, losing a large number in killed and wounded. Relieved at Spanish Fort by Holtzclaw's brigade, they were sent to Blakely, where, after enduring the privations and perils of the siege of Blakely, they were captured, and were exchanged a few days before the final surrender of the department of the Gulf. Captain Johnson, of the Sixty-third, was killed, and Captain Ward, of the Sixty-second, wounded, at Spanish Fort. Capt. J. W. Pitts, who assisted in the defense of Talladega during Rousseau's raid, became major of the Sixty-second. This regiment, composed wholly of young men, was especially complimented by General Liddell for gallant conduct at Spanish Fort.