The Alabama Brigade

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The Alabama Brigade

Also known as Law’s Brigade, the Alabama Brigade was a military formation of the Confederate States Armyduring the American Civil War. It was created in 1863 and participated in major combat operations such as the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of the Wilderness and the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. It was considered one of the great fighting brigades of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The Alabama Brigade was established on 19 January 1863; consisting of five Alabama infantry regiments that were collected from three different brigades. In November, the 44th Alabama regiment was added to this brigade. The Alabama brigade was reorganized a final time in January 1863; and the 15th, 47th, and 48th Alabama regiments were added.

Evander McIver Law (August 7, 1836 – October 31, 1920) was an author, teacher, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. Law was born in Darlington, South Carolina. His grandfather and his two great-grandfathers had fought in the American Revolutionary War under Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox” guerrilla leader. He graduated from the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) in 1856 and was a professor of history at Kings Mountain Military Academy from 1858 to 1860, when he moved to Alabama to form his own Military High School in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Commanded by Evander M. Law it was a part of Gen. Robert E. Lee`s Army of Northern Virginia. It was assigned to the division of Maj.Gen. John Bell Hood in the First Corps under Lt.Gen. James Longstreet. It participated in the Suffolk Campaign and had a prominent role in the Battle of Gettysburg. Afterwards the division was, for a brief period in 1863, transferred to the Army of Tennessee where it fought in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Knoxville Campaign before being transferred back to the east in 1864. It participated in the Battle of the Wilderness and continued to serve in the Appomattox Campaign that resulted in Confederate Gen. Lee’s surrender and the conclusion of the American Civil War. Along with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia, the brigade was paroled and its surviving members returned to Alabama as civilians.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, “The Alabama Brigade (American Civil War),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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