Monthly Archives: October 2010

First Christmas in Virginia

Posted on October 30, 2010 by

The 13th regiment’s run-up to the 1861 holiday was dreary, enlivened only by night work on the dirt forts near Leesburg (night work because day work attracted snipers from across the Potomac), cold weather with occasional sleet, and false alarms … Continue reading →

Posted in Gen. William Barksdale, Mike M. Hubbert Diary, The Minute Men of Attala, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Brigadier Gen. Richard Griffith

Posted on October 28, 2010 by

Griffith was then-Colonel Jefferson Davis’s first lieutenant and adjutant in the Mexican War, where Davis mentioned him for gallantry in several reports. The 47-year-old Jackson banker was a Pennsylvania native, an honor graduate of Ohio University, and a teacher when … Continue reading →

Posted in Gen. Richard Griffith, Mississippi, The Commanders | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Slave-owning officers of the 13th

Posted on October 28, 2010 by

I finally found the time to run the names of some of the 13th’s commissioned and non-commissioned officers through the federal 1860 Slave Schedules Census search engine at Ancestry.com I have, so far, found the following slave ownership (or lack … Continue reading →

Posted in Gen. William Barksdale, Mississippi, Slavery, The Alamutcha Infantry, The Kemper Legion, The Minute Men of Attala, The Pettus Guards, The Secessionists, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Spies in the sky

Posted on October 26, 2010 by

Thaddeus Lowe, chief aeronaut of the fledgling Union Army Balloon Corps, had been making preliminary flights throughout the fall of 1861 to observe Confederate troop positions. On Saturday, Dec. 14, from a base he’d established on the Maryland shore near … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Leesburg, Mike M. Hubbert Diary, The Minute Men of Attala | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

The new battle flag

Posted on October 24, 2010 by

Richmond still was celebrating the victory at Leesburg/Ball’s Bluff when, on Dec. 9, Gen. Evans took leave of the Seventh Brigade. He presented each regiment with the new Confederate battle flag sewn by some Richmond ladies. Virginia Miller, a resident … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Leesburg, Gen. Nathan G. Evans, Gen. Richard Griffith, Gen. William Barksdale, The Battle Flags, The Commanders, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Brigadier Gen. D.H. Hill

Posted on October 22, 2010 by

Daniel Harvey Hill, like Evans a South Carolinian, was the hero of Big Bethel, an early skirmish of the war near Fortress Monroe on the Virginia peninsula. Also like Evans, Hill was a West Point graduate. But the brother-in-law of … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Leesburg, Gen. Daniel H. Hill, Gen. Nathan G. Evans, Gen. Richard Griffith, Mississippi | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Move to Hogback Mountain

Posted on October 20, 2010 by

Just as he had feared, Newt Nash had to pull down his excellent rock stove the day after he wrote to Mollie about it.  That Monday, Dec. 2, the regiment broke camp and left Carter’s Mill on the Oatlands Plantation. … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Leesburg, Gen. Nathan G. Evans, The Commanders, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Correspondence

Posted on October 18, 2010 by

The 13th was still camped at Carter’s Mill, when Minutemen Pvt. Nimrod Newton Nash wrote this letter to his wife Mollie: In Camp Sunday Morning Dec. 1st 1861 Dearest Mollie, After washing, putting on clean clothes and reading some in … Continue reading →

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Arrival of the Twenty-first Mississippi

Posted on October 16, 2010 by

The Twenty-first Mississippi Infantry Regiment, the final component of the future Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade (the 13th, 17th, 18th and 21st), arrived Nov. 12 and joined Evans’s Seventh Brigade. The Twenty-first was composed of eleven companies which had all, according to … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Gen. William Barksdale, H. Grady Howell Jr. | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chronic illness discharges

Posted on October 14, 2010 by

By the end of November, more than thirty men of the 13th had been discharged since the Battle of Leesburg/Ball’s Bluff for chronic illnesses and a few more for wounds that would not heal, according to their muster rolls in … Continue reading →

Posted in Jess N. McLean, The Alamutcha Infantry | Tagged , , | Leave a comment