Category Archives: Mississippi

The “stillness” at Appomattox

Posted on April 9, 2013 by

The pittance that was the 13th Mississippi Regiment at Appomattox Courthouse played no recorded role in the events surrounding General Lee’s formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865. It was the Christian holy day of … Continue reading →

Posted in Captured at Saylor's Creek, H. Grady Howell Jr., Humpreys Mississippi Brigade, Jess N. McLean, Mississippi, Muster Rolls, Newton Rifles, The Minute Men of Attala, The Pettus Guards, The Spartan Band | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Poore Boys In Gray

Posted on January 28, 2012 by

Ralph Poore, a onetime Utah newspaperman, is the latest descendent of a 13th Regiment soldier to write a book about his ancestor—two of them, actually, his great uncles the privates Francis Marion Poore and John F. Poore of the Newton … Continue reading →

Posted in Jess N. McLean, Mississippi, Newton Rifles | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Five days of rest, more or less

Posted on October 10, 2011 by

The brigade left its camp at sunrise on Wednesday, July 15, 1863, and marched thirteen miles, passing through Martinsburg. They finally camped at Bunker Hill, a hamlet beside the Winchester Pike, on Mill Creek, a tributary of Opequan Creek. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Gen. Lafayette McLaws, Mississippi, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Mississippi Brigade attacks

Posted on September 18, 2011 by

By some accounts, Gen. William Barksdale, of Columbus, Mississippi, the 13th Regiment’s colonel at muster in 1861, spent the late afternoon of July 2, 1863, in frustration. He was trying to get his division and corps commanders to allow his … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Battles: Gettysburg, Confederate Veteran Magazine, Gen. William Barksdale, Mississippi, The Commanders, The Winston Guards | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Home and back again

Posted on July 13, 2011 by

None of the available diarists or letter writers of the 13th Mississippi recorded their experiences of what it was like traveling home on furlough and back to the army. But Private Robert A. Moore, a diarist of the Confederate Guards, … Continue reading →

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The Revivals Continue

Posted on June 5, 2011 by

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1862, was “clear and very cold” in Fredericksburg, according to Spartan Band diarist William H. Hill. But enthusiasm for the Protestant Christian preaching, more than two months after the Rebels’ great slaughter of the Union forces on … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Mississippi, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Valentine’s Day

Posted on May 28, 2011 by

Then and now, Valentine’s Day was celebrated by young Mississippians, particularly the single ones who made up the majority of the 13th Regiment in the spring of 1863. But just as in the spring of 1862, when the regiment was … Continue reading →

Posted in Fredericksburg, Mississippi, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Private Jonathon James McDaniel

Posted on May 24, 2011 by

This post-war picture of the Winston Guards private from Louisville, Mississippi, was recently provided to me by his great, great granddaughter Jo Anzalone. He was in Fredericksburg with the 13th, a young farmer who joined the Guards in May, 1861, … Continue reading →

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Furloughs

Posted on May 22, 2011 by

The senior officers, as usually, took advantage of the winter lull and went home on  furlough. There was controversy over whether the junior officers and privates should enjoy the same privilege. The brigade’s former commander, Gen. D.H. Hill, for instance, … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Correspondence, Fredericksburg, Gen. Daniel H. Hill, Mississippi, Nimrod Newton Nash, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A slave takes his master home

Posted on May 12, 2011 by

The bodies of two men of the 13th Mississippi Regiment, left in the town when the brigade withdrew on the evening of Dec. 11, were discovered after Christmas in the rubble of some shelled and destroyed Fredericksburg homes. One was … Continue reading →

Posted in Albert Wymer Henley Diary, Fredericksburg, Jess N. McLean, Mississippi, Slavery, The Spartan Band, The Winston Guards, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , | Leave a comment