Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/407

386 first were not put into regiments. His commission as major dates from March 18, 1862. Later in the same year he was promoted to be colonel of the regiment. He fought at Shiloh, and was engaged in the subsequent operations of that company. When the advance into Kentucky was made, he went as colonel of his regiment. At the battle of Perryville he received a slight wound. At Murfreesboro he commanded a brigade, and received a severe wound which disabled him for some time. On the 26th of February, 1864, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and took command of a brigade at Dalton, consisting of the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, Twelfth and Fifty-first regiments of Alabama cavalry, Wheeler's corps, army of Tennessee. He was in charge of this brigade through all the arduous duties of the mounted men in the Atlanta campaign. In August, 1864, Crews' Georgia brigade was added to his command, and subsequently Anderson's Confederate brigade. At the head of this division he, under the command of Wheeler, followed Sherman in his march through Georgia and in the Carolinas, earning by his fidelity to duty the commission of major-general, conferred upon him in 1865. He surrendered at Salisbury, N. C, May 3, 1865. Returning home he devoted himself to agriculture. For several years he was adjutant-general of the State. As a soldier he was cool and fearless in danger and tireless in the performance of duty. As a citizen he was cordial in manner and of ardent public spirit. In peace, as well as in war, he merited and received the confidence and esteem of his people. He died at Sheffield, Ala., November 21, 1894. His wife was a sister of Col. Charles P. Ball, of Montgomery county.

Brigadier-General Alpheus Baker was born at Clover Hill, Abbeville district, S. C, May 28, 1828. His father, an eminent teacher and scholar, was a native of Massachusetts, and his mother, a Miss Courtney, a native