Book Description

The Alabama 38th Infantry Regiment was organized at Mobile in May 1862, and remained at the defenses in the vicinity of that city till February 1863. It then proceeded to Tullahoma, and was there placed in the brigade of Gen. Clayton of Barbour, with the Eighteenth, Thirty-sixth, and Fifty-eighth of Alabama regiments. The regiment was first under fire with slight loss at Hoover's Gap, and lost nearly half the regiment killed and wounded at Chickamauga. At Missionary Ridge the Thirty-eighth was again hotly engaged at close quarters, and a large number were captured. It wintered at Dalton, and bore its share in the operations of the Dalton-Atlanta campaign, losing severely, particularly at Resaca and Atlanta. From Marietta to the close, Gen. Holtzclaw of Montgomery commanded the brigade. It fought around the latter city, and at Jonesboro. During the Tennessee campaign of Gen. Hood, the regiment felt the blight of the December frost at Nashville, and was in the rear of the retreat. Placed in the defenses at Mobile, the regiment went through the fiery ordeal at Spanish Fort, where it again suffered severely. With the army, it was surrendered at Meridian, Mississippi, about 80 strong.