Alabama 63rd
Infantry Regiment
From the book:
Confederate Military History
Page 231
Reserve Regiments and Battalion History
Sixty-Second, Sixty-Third and Sixty-Fifth Regiments
“There
were about nine regiments and three battalions of reserves, composed for the
most part of very young men, about two regiments being made up of old men, and
they were organized principally for the defense of Mobile and the bay
forts. Some of these were, in 1864,
consolidated under the command of Col. Daniel Huger, of the First reserve
regiment, and the new regiment known as the Sixty-Second Alabama. Others, under Col. Olin F. Rice, of the
Second Reserve regiment, were known as the Sixty-Third. The First Battalion, also called the Fourth
reserve regiment, was consolidated with the Third and Fourth battalions under
Lieut. -Col. E. M. Underhill, and called the Sixty-Fifth Alabama; it was
employed mainly in the defenses of Mobile, though a detachment was sent to
Montgomery in April 1865, and retired before Wilson’s army to Girard, where it
fought with severe loss and was captured.
The Sixty-second and Sixty-third fought in General Thomas’ brigade at
Fort Gaines and Spanish Fort, losing a large number in killed and wounded. Relieved at Spanish Fort by Holtzclaw’s
brigade, they were sent to Blakely, where, after enduring the privations and
perils of the siege of Blakely, they were captured, and were exchanged a few
days before the final surrender of the department of the Gulf. Captain Johnson, of the Sixty-third, was
killed, and Captain Ward, of the Sixty-second, wounded, at Spanish Fort. Captain J. W. Pitts, who assisted in the
defense of Talladega during Rousseau’s raid, became major of the
Sixty-second. This regiment, composed
wholly of young men, was especially complimented by General Liddell for gallant
conduct at Spanish Fort.”