I am interested in knowing more about Co. F of the 22nd Alabama. My great-great grandmother's first husband, William Blake, was killed at Chickamauga, along with his cousin John M. Goodwin of Talladega. According to the family story passed down by my great aunt, William Blake had asked his wife, my g-g grandmother, Mary Goodwin Blake, to make him some Indian boots because his feet hurt. (Her father John Goodwin was part Cherokee.) She made him boots out of doghide and sent them to him by a slave, perhaps Zack who is mentioned in the letter. Anyway, many of the men of Co. F were killed at Chickamauga so my g-g-g grandfather John Goodwin took his daughter and others from the Arbacoochee area up to claim the bodies. She identified her husband by the Indian boots she had made for him and his gold teeth. Arbacoochee was a gold rush town in the 1830s, and the Blakes and the Goodwins had been involved in mining.

I think you would find the letter from Capt. Martin quite interesting.

Kitty