Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/440

Rh, in 1854, he was promoted in the army to brevet second lieutenant of infantry. He served on frontier duty in Washington territory; on an expedition against the Snake Indians; was engaged with much credit near Walla Walla; afterward at Fort Boise, and again at Fort Vancouver. In 1856 he resigned and became a member of his father's firm in Mobile, displaying much capacity for business, and enjoying home life with his wife, Miss Mayo, of Virginia, a relative of Gen. Winfield Scott. He did not, however, lose his fondness for the military life, joining the Washington light infantry of Mobile and becoming its captain. Just before the secession of Alabama Governor Moore instructed him to seize Mount Vernon arsenal, which he promptly did. Shortly after, this company, the first from Alabama mustered into the Confederate service, became a part of the Third Alabama infantry. Proceeding to Virginia with his regiment, Captain Gracie was promoted to major of the Eleventh Alabama, July 12, 1861. Later he obtained authority to raise a regiment, which he did in the spring of 1862, and was elected colonel. This was the Forty-third Alabama, and was assigned to the corps led by Gen. Kirby Smith, operating in east Tennessee. Toward the latter part of August, 1862, Colonel Gracie was put in command of a brigade and led an expedition from Clinton northward to Jacksboro, and across the Cumberland mountains into Scott county, where he attacked Fort Cliff, defended by a body of Tennessee loyalists under Colonel Cliff. He captured the fort, whose defenders fled after making a slight show of resistance. He led his regiment through the Kentucky campaign, was commandant of the town of Lexington during its occupancy by the Confederates, and of Cumberland Gap after the return to Tennessee. In November, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general; his command consisted of the Forty-third Alabama, Sixty-third Tennessee, and the First, Second, Third and Fourth battalions of the Hilliard legion, until after the battle of