There's no question the 1st Alabama, Tennessee & Mississippi Regiment had a terrible time. First they served in miserable conditions at Fort Pillow, New Madrid and Island No. 10. They when their commanding general surrendered his entire army, they were loaded onto steamboats, then trains and taken to prison camp in Chicago. The men were transferred to Camp Randall at Madison, Wisconsin, then back to Chicago. Many of them died of disease in those camps. Only one died of wounds–he received them when his faulty weapon exploded in his face.The survivors were exchanged in September 1862. Jim's ancestor, and his brother, were sent home on furlough. Neither of them returned for duty when their leave was up, making my daughter ineligible for membership in the Daughters of the Confederacy.
I am reading "Island No. 10, Struggle for the Mississippi Valley," by Larry J. Daniel and Lynn N. Bock (University of Alabama Press, 1996), and one theme recurs: how poorly armed these men were.
The regiment was formed in September 1861. On page 10 the authors say the 1st Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi Regiment was still not armed in January 1862.
On pages 25-26 the authors continue their discussion of the 1st's arms. "…on February 26 (1862)... guns were only a notch above worthless. The rifles, prepared in a Memphis shop, had mainsprings that often broke. Only days earlier, a shipment of eighty such rifles had been received, twenty-four of which malfunctioned when test-fired. Some men in the outfit had only old squirrel guns and shotguns, and others remained unarmed. Indeed, there were only twenty-five decent arms in the entire regiment."
Still the men boarded a steamship for their post, and just before it left they received another shipment of 180 Memphis rifles, and (page 26) "inferior as they were, the weapons were an improvement on nothing at all."
On page 47 the authors report one company of the 1st had no weapons at all. Was it the Rutledges' Company H?
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