The 1st Regiment Alabama Siege Artillery (African Descent) was an
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...
recruited from African-Americans that served in the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. The regiment was renamed the 6th US Colored Heavy Artillery. Under the leadership of Major Lionel Booth, the regiment fought at the Battle of Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864. The regiment then became the 7th US Colored Heavy Artillery, and later the 11th United States Colored Infantry.
Service
The 1st Alabama Siege Artillery Regiment was raised at
LaGrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaLaFayette and
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, as well as Corinth, Mississippi, on June 20, 1863, after Federal troops occupied the area. In addition to artillery, the regiment also trained as infantry.
The unit was re-designated as 6th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment on March 11, 1864. On March 17, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas J. Jackson was placed in command of the regiment. The next day he turned the command over to newly promoted Major Lionel F. Booth. At that point the regiment had a strength of 8 officers and 213 men. It arrived at Fort Pillow on March 29 and Major Booth, being the senior officer present, was placed in command of the fort.
On April 12, the fort was attacked by approximately 1,500 Confederate troops led by General
James R. Chalmers
James Ronald Chalmers (January 11, 1831April 9, 1898) was an American politician and senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry and cavalry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
After the war, Chalmers s ...
Nathan B. Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealth ...
. The battery took positions inside the inner fort walls. However, the Confederates had occupied the surrounding bluffs that allowed them to fire down into the fort. Early in the morning, Major Booth was shot by a Confederate sniper. The command of the fort fell to the in-experienced Major William F. Bradford, the commander of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry (US). The command of the 6th Heavy Artillery fell to Captain Charles Epeneter, who was wounded in the head.
The battery operated two 12-pound howitzers at the northern embrasures or openings in the parapet. Several days before the battle, two 10-pound Parrotts were brought to Fort Pillow. These pieces were placed outside the fort at the beginning of the battle, but were soon moved inside the fort. Wooden platforms were hastily erected adjacent to two open embrasures facing south. During the final assault on the fort, all Union artillery was largely ineffective because the guns could not be depressed enough to fire upon the Confederates on the steep terrain below. Two other cannons, 6-pound James Rifles, were placed in the center two embrasures and manned by a section of men from Company D, 2nd US Colored Light Artillery.
The regiment suffered many casualties at the battle but unlike many newspaper reports not all of the black soldiers were killed. Fifty-six were taken prisoner by the Confederates. Most of them were taken to Mississippi and Alabama and enslaved whereas the white prisoners from the 13th Tennessee Cavalry were sent to Andersonville Prison where a large percentage died. Several of the black prisoners escaped and many of those missing in action eventually returned to their unit.
After the losses at the Battle of Fort Pillow, the survivors were reformed into the 7th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment on April 26, 1864, and later into the 11th United States Colored Infantry on January 23, 1865 (after the former regiment of the same name had been consolidated into the
113th United States Colored Infantry
The 113th United States Colored Infantry (formerly the 6th Arkansas Colored Infantry Regiment) was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was composed of African American enlisted men command ...
List of Alabama Union Civil War regiments
This is a list of units from the State of Alabama that fought in the U.S. Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865):
See also
* List of American Civil War units by state
* Alabama Civil War Confederate Units
* Alabama in the America ...
* Dyer, Frederick H. (1959). ''A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion''. New York and London. Thomas Yoseloff, Publisher. .
* Ward, Andrew. ''River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War''. New York: Viking Adult, 2005. {{ISBN, 0-670-03440-1.
*
U.S. Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was a United States congressional committee started on December 9, 1861, and was dismissed in May 1865. The committee investigated the progress of the war against the Confederacy. Meetings were held ...