Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/74

 J6 Suiitlii'i'ii Ilivtnrn-iil Soa'i-ti/ Papers.

On the 26th of March, while near my home at Monticello, the Gov- ernor wrote me that he wished to send a regiment of infantry to Pen- sacola for Confederate service. My old company was immediately reorganized and on the 28th of March started for Chattahoochie arsenal, the place appointed for all the companies to rendezvous and elect field officers. On the 5th of April I was elected colonel of the ist Florida regiment without opposition, and that night started with the regiment to report to General Bragg at Pensacola. We reached Pensacola on the nth, and i2th of April went into camp and com- menced drilling and exercising the troops. On the nights of the 7th-8th of October I commanded one of the detachments which made a descent upon the camp of Billy Wilson's Zouaves, under the guns of Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island. The expedition consisted of about a thousand men divided into three detachments, re- spectively under Col. J. R. Jackson, 5th Georgia regiment; Col. James R. Chalmers, gth Mississippi regiment, and myself. Chalmers had the right, Jackson the centre, and I the left ; the whole under command of Brigadier-General R. H. Anderson, of South Carolina. My com- mand consisted of 100 men from the ist Florida, 100 men from the ist Louisiana, and about 150 from the ist Alabama, and other com- mands. My loss in this fight was eleven killed, twenty-four wounded and twelve captured. (I speak from memory.)

On the loth of February, 1862, I was appointed a brigadier-gen- eral in the provisional army of Confederate States, and in March was ordered to report to General Bragg, then at Jackson in West Ten- nessee. Soon after reporting I was assigned to the command of a brigade of infantry in the division of Brigadier-General Ruggles, then at Corinth, Miss. This brigade consisted principally of Louis- iana troops, to which the ist Florida and gth Texas regiments were soon after added. I was immediately ordered to the front of Corinth in the direction of Monterey and Pittsburg Landing.

At the battle of Shiloh my brigade consisted of the iyth, igth and 2oth Louisiana regiments, the gth Texas, the ist Florida, and Clack's Louisiana battalion, with the 5th Company of Washington Artillery of New Orleans.

Soon after the battle of Shiloh, Hindman was assigned to the command of Ruggle's division, but only exercised it a few days when he was ordered to Arkansas, and the command devolved upon me as senior brigadier. I commanded the division in the retreat from Corinth till we reached Clear Creek, near Baldwin, where I was taken ill with fever, and Major-General Sam Jones was assigned