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Re: Co. E, 51st Alabama Cavalry
In Response To: Co. E, 51st Alabama Cavalry ()

I may not be able to check these service records for a few days, so please check back. Meanwhile, here's some information on captains of the company, which mustered at Ashville (Saint Clair County), Alabama, May 29, 1862.

William A. Edwards. Resigned April 27, 1863, being overage and in poor physical condition.

Charles Fairchild Force. Captured at Shelbyville, Tennessee, June 27, 1863. Appointed Captain July 12, 1864, to rank from July 6, 1864. Exchanged at Aiken’s Landing, Virginia, May 8, 1864. Paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, as Captain and Assistant Adjutant General (A.A.G.) May 12, 1865.

Capt. George Knox Miller of the 8th Confederate Cavalry called Shelbyville "the greatest cavalry disaster of the war". Not only were Wheeler's troops literally driven into the river, but many were killed and wounded by their own horses, trampled during the stampede towards the river. Connelly's "Autumn of Glory" http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/fall2001_books/books/connelly2.html
indicates that Martin's Division (under Wheeler's direct command) had been out of position since Morgan left on his Ohio raid.

If the August 1862 enlistment date is correct, it indicates that these men enlisted under some duress. Provisions of the Conscript Act had been in force since May 16, 1862, obliging most free white men to enroll. Usually men like these were collected by the county recruiting officer, taken to a "camp of instruction" and assigned to random Alabama companies. To paraphrase the language used in the law, they had forfeited the privilege of volunteering.

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