Dear Deanna,

Davis James MS Cav. 1st Choctaw Bn.

This man is listed as a member of the 1st Choctaw Bn.

First Mississippi Choctaw Battalion Cavalry
The following information is taken directly from Units of the Confederate States Army by Joseph H. Crute, Jr. Published by Derwent Books; Midlothian, Virginia. (c)1987.

1st Choctaw Battalion Cavalry was organized at Jackson, Mississippi, during the summer of 1862. It contained Choctaw Indians from the region south of Jackson. The unit served in the Department of Mississippi and East Lousiana and skirmished within the boundaries of Mississippi. On June 9, 1863, it disbanded. Major J. W. Pierce was in command.

Here is another history:

1st Choctaw Battalion Mississippi Cavalry

(from Dunbar Rowland’s "Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898"; company listing courtesy of H. Grady Howell’s "For Dixie Land, I’ll Take My Stand’)

Company A -- Capt. Ben Duckworth’s Company (county of origin not specified)

Company B -- Capt. J.W. Moore’s Company (county of origin not specified)

Major -- J. W. Pearce.

On duty in Gen. John Adams' district, headquarters Jackson, February, 1863, and April, Maj. J. W. Pearce commanding.

About 200 Choctaw braves enlisted in the Confederate service early in 1863, under the command of Major Pearce, and soon afterward were in an engagement with Union soldiers at Tangipahoe, La., with disastrous results. Many of the Indians and several of the white officers were captured and some of the Indians were taken North and put on exhibition. This put an end to the battalion as an organization, which was formally disbanded May 9, 1863, but a transfer was made to Spann's Battalion of independent scouts, as dismounted scouts.

[Transcriber’s Note: Regretably, no further information on either the 1st Choctaw Battalion or Spann’s Battalion can be found in Rowland’s masterwork of MS Confederate History.]