15th Alabama Infantry Regiment
- Thomas Connell II
- Jun 1
- 15 min read
Company G, The Henry Pioneers
Army of Northern Virginia · 1861–1865
By: Col. Thomas Connell Date: June 1, 2026 Category: Civil War History, Civil War Reenacting
A Living History Unit of the Liberty Greys
Regimental History: The 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment
Organization and Early Service
The 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized at Fort Mitchell, Alabama, on July 3, 1861, when Governor Andrew B. Moore mustered eleven companies into Confederate state service under the command of Colonel James Cantey, a South Carolina-born planter residing in Russell County. Cantey had formed the nucleus of the regiment earlier in May 1861 with his own company, known as "Cantey's Rifles." Ten additional companies from six counties in southeastern Alabama joined to complete the regiment, which entered service with approximately 900 men.
The regiment was raised from Barbour, Russell, Dale, Henry, Macon, and Pike counties, regions that contributed a cross-section of Alabama's rural and small-town population in the early months of the war. The range of men who answered the call was wide: according to one regimental account, the youngest private in the 15th Alabama was only thirteen years old, while the oldest, Edmond Shepherd, was seventy. Because the 15th had enlisted for three years, it received arms directly from the Confederate government, which refused to equip regiments enlisting for shorter terms. Companies A and B received the M1841 Mississippi Rifle, a .54-caliber percussion weapon with a strong reputation from the Mexican-American War. The remaining companies were issued older smoothbore "George Law" muskets that had been converted from flintlock to percussion ignition. The regiment later received British Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-muskets and Springfield Model 1861 rifled muskets as the war continued.
Following its formal organization, the regiment proceeded to Pageland Field, Virginia, for training and drill. The months in Virginia proved costly before the regiment ever entered combat. Disease swept through the ranks at Pageland, killing approximately 150 men from measles alone. Transfer to Camp Toombs, Virginia, in September 1861 failed to halt the losses; over 200 additional men died of smallpox during the winter of 1861-1862. These losses foreshadowed the attrition that would define the regiment's existence throughout the war.
The regiment lost more than 350 men to disease before it fired its first shot in battle, a stark illustration of the particular brutality faced by Civil War soldiers far from home.
Jackson's Valley Campaign and the Seven Days Battles, 1862
At Camp Toombs, the 15th Alabama was placed in Trimble's Brigade of Ewell's Division, Army of Northern Virginia, alongside the 21st Georgia, 21st North Carolina, and 16th Mississippi. When the main Confederate force shifted toward Yorktown, the 15th was transferred to the command of Major General Thomas J. Jackson, joining his famous Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862.
The regiment participated in three significant engagements during the Valley Campaign: the Battle of Front Royal on May 23, the First Battle of Winchester on May 25, and the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8, 1862. At Cross Keys, the 15th suffered 9 killed and 33 wounded out of 426 engaged. The regiment's performance earned formal praise from both division commander Ewell and brigade commander Trimble, who singled out Colonel Cantey's tactical handling of the unit. At Cross Keys, the regiment participated in every major phase of the battle, from the opening skirmish on the left flank to the final counterattack on the Confederate right that ended the engagement.
Following the Valley Campaign, the regiment joined Jackson's assault on General George McClellan's flank during the Seven Days Battles, fighting at Gaines' Mill on June 27-28, 1862, where it suffered its heaviest losses to date: 34 killed and 110 wounded out of 412 engaged. The regiment also participated at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, with negligible casualties.
The Northern Virginia and Maryland Campaigns, 1862
The summer and fall of 1862 brought continuous campaigning. During the Northern Virginia Campaign, the 15th fought at Warrenton Springs Ford, Hazel River, Kettle Run, Second Manassas, and Chantilly. At Second Manassas on August 30, 1862, the regiment engaged approximately 440 men and suffered 21 killed and 91 wounded. The Battle of Chantilly followed two days later, adding 4 killed and 14 wounded to the tally.
Lee's Maryland Campaign in September 1862 brought the regiment to Harper's Ferry and the Battle of Antietam on September 17, where the 15th engaged approximately 300 men and lost 9 killed and 75 wounded. Acting brigade commander Colonel James A. Walker formally cited Captain Isaac B. Feagin's conduct in the after-action report, commending the regiment's performance under the heaviest fire it had yet faced. The regiment closed out 1862 at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, losing 1 killed and 34 wounded.
Reassignment to Law's Alabama Brigade, 1863
In January 1863, the 15th Alabama was transferred to a new brigade under Brigadier General Evander McIver Law, joining the 4th, 44th, 47th, and 48th Alabama regiments in what became known as the Alabama Brigade. The brigade operated within General John Bell Hood's division of Lieutenant General James Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. This reorganization gave the five Alabama regiments a cohesive identity they would carry through the remainder of the war.
The change in assignment coincided with significant transition in the regiment's command. Colonel James Cantey was promoted to Brigadier General on January 8, 1863, and was detached and sent to Mobile, Alabama, removing him from the regiment permanently. Lieutenant Colonel John F. Treutlen, who had organized Company H (the Glenville Guards) and served as lieutenant colonel since Fort Mitchell in August 1861, was elevated to acting command following Cantey's departure. Treutlen resigned before the Gettysburg Campaign, leaving the regiment to Lieutenant Colonel William C. Oates, who had organized Company G and risen through successive field promotions. Oates was formally commissioned Colonel in early 1863 and held command through July 1864.
Throughout this period, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac B. Feagin provided crucial field continuity. Feagin had organized the Midway Guards before the war, commanded the regiment himself at Sharpsburg when Oates was absent due to illness, and by Gettysburg held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, appointed May 1, 1863. He was severely wounded during the assault on Little Round Top, losing his leg, was captured on the field, and spent eleven months in Federal captivity before being exchanged in June 1864.
In the spring of 1863, the 15th and its brigade participated in Longstreet's Siege of Suffolk, Virginia, where the regiment lost 4 killed and 18 wounded. It was during this relatively quiet period that the army paused long enough for one notable interlude: on January 29, 1863, a large-scale snowball fight erupted among Confederate camps, eventually drawing more than 9,000 soldiers into a day-long free-for-all that the 15th participated in alongside other regiments of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Gettysburg: The Assault on Little Round Top, July 2, 1863
The engagement that would permanently define the regiment's historical identity came on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Law's Alabama Brigade, as part of Hood's division, was ordered to assault the Union left flank. The men had already marched approximately 25 miles in the summer heat before moving directly into action without adequate rest or water.
The 15th Alabama, now commanded by Colonel Oates and numbering approximately 499 men, was the largest regiment in the brigade. The regiment was ordered to advance against Little Round Top, a rocky wooded hill at the extreme left of the Union line. Defending the southernmost position on that hill was the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, a professor of rhetoric from Bowdoin College who had been placed in command of the regiment the previous year.
Of the 499 men the 15th Alabama carried into action at Little Round Top, more than 30 percent were killed, wounded, or captured before the regiment fell back at dusk.
Oates and his men launched a series of determined uphill assaults against the 20th Maine's position on the boulder-strewn southern slope. The regiment briefly succeeded in pushing around the Union left flank, and at several points the outcome of the fight hung in the balance. A critical complication arose when a detachment of approximately 22 men Oates had sent in search of water failed to return, reducing his effective strength at the moment the regiment needed every available man.
After several assaults and a desperate close-range firefight, Chamberlain ordered a downhill bayonet charge that swept the exhausted and ammunition-depleted 15th Alabama back down the slope. The regiment was unable to hold its gains and was forced to withdraw, having suffered more than 30 percent casualties among the 499 engaged. Among the dead was Captain Henry C. Brainard, Company G's commander following Oates' promotion. Lieutenant John A. Oates, the colonel's younger brother and a Company G officer, was mortally wounded during the assault and died on July 30, 1863.
The 15th Alabama's assault on Little Round Top became one of the most studied infantry engagements of the Civil War, examined and debated in regimental accounts, histories, and scholarly works for more than a century. Colonel Oates himself published a full account of the engagement in his 1905 memoir, "The War Between the Union and the Confederacy." The assault was depicted in Ronald F. Maxwell's 1993 film "Gettysburg."
Western Service: Chickamauga and the Knoxville Campaign, 1863
Following Gettysburg, Longstreet's Corps, including the Alabama Brigade and the 15th Alabama, was transferred west to reinforce General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. The regiment fought at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, engaging approximately 425 men and suffering 19 killed and 123 wounded, casualties that earned the regiment another formal commendation, this time from Brigadier General Zachariah C. Deas.
The regiment remained in Tennessee through the fall and early winter of 1863, fighting at Brown's Ferry and Lookout Valley in late October (15 killed, 40 wounded), and participating in Longstreet's Knoxville Campaign in November and December (6 killed, 21 wounded). The regiment closed out its western service at the Battle of Bean's Station in December 1863, suffering negligible losses, before returning with Longstreet's Corps to Virginia in the spring of 1864.
The Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg, 1864-1865
Back in Virginia, the 15th Alabama rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia in time for General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign. The regiment fought at the Battle of the Wilderness from May 5 to 7, 1864, then at Spotsylvania Court House, where it suffered 18 killed and 48 wounded. Continued fighting at the North Anna River and the Second Battle of Cold Harbor added to the regiment's losses.
By June 1864, the regiment had taken its place in the lines before Petersburg, participating in the long siege that would grind on until April 1865. The 15th sustained severe losses at Deep Bottom, where approximately one-third of the 275 men present were killed or wounded, and at Fussell's Mill, where 13 were killed and 90 wounded. Attrition had reduced the regiment to a shadow of its original strength.
The regiment participated in the final defense of Petersburg and the subsequent retreat. When General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the 15th Alabama was among the units present. It surrendered with 170 men, representing a fraction of the 1,958 men who had appeared on its rolls throughout the war. Of those, 261 were confirmed killed in action, 416 died of disease, 218 were captured, 66 deserted, and 61 were transferred or discharged.
Company History: Company G, the Henry Pioneers
Origins and the Man Who Built Them
Company G of the 15th Alabama was organized and initially commanded by William Calvin Oates, a lawyer and newspaper proprietor from Abbeville, the seat of Henry County in southeastern Alabama. Born in 1835 in Pike County into a poor rural family, Oates had lived a restless early life before settling in Henry County, completing his legal education, establishing a law practice, and founding the Abbeville Banner newspaper. He was 25 years old when he raised the company in the summer of 1861.
Oates recruited the company largely from Henry County, which at that time encompassed nearly all of what is now Houston County. The men Oates assembled were predominantly Irish-born residents of the area, reflecting the immigrant labor communities that had settled in southeastern Alabama by the 1850s. Oates formally designated his company the "Henry Pioneers" or "Henry County Pioneers," a name emphasizing the county's identity. Observers who encountered the company noted their distinctively colorful appearance: bright red shirts worn beneath Richmond grey frock coats and trousers. The combination was striking enough that those who saw them quickly dubbed the company "Oates' Zouaves," an informal nickname that stuck alongside the official designation.
Company G's caps bore the initials "HP" for Henry Pioneers, though soldiers in the company reportedly offered an alternative interpretation: "Hell's Pelters." Historical accounts describe the company's headgear as "colorful and diverse" in style, a contrast to the standard issue that characterized most Confederate units. Each man also wore what the record describes as a "secession badge" bearing the motto "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," the slogan of the French Revolution, here adapted to the Southern cause. The combination of red shirts, grey coats, varied headgear, and French revolutionary mottoes gave Company G one of the more distinctive appearances in the regiment.
Company G in the War
Company G followed the regiment's path through the Valley Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, losing men steadily to both combat and disease. Throughout this period, Oates commanded the company while simultaneously rising in prominence within the regiment. When Cantey was promoted and transferred in early 1863, Oates assumed command of the regiment as a whole, leaving Company G under the command of Captain Henry C. Brainard.
The company's most consequential hour came at Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. Captain Brainard was killed in action during the assault. Lieutenant John Oates, the colonel's younger brother, took immediate command of the company upon Brainard's death but was shot multiple times and died of his wounds in a Union field hospital on July 30, 1863. Second Lieutenant Barnett H. Cody was also killed in action during the same assault. Private Charles Raleigh, captured at Gettysburg at the age of 17, was never exchanged. Private James Bagwell, aged 20, was killed in action. In a single afternoon's fighting, the entire commissioned officer corps of Company G had been eliminated.
The leadership vacuum that followed Gettysburg defined Company G's experience for the rest of the war. The company entered 1864 without a permanent captain, command falling to surviving junior lieutenants and non-commissioned officers who received battlefield promotions as attrition continued to thin the ranks. By late 1864, the 15th Alabama as a whole was so reduced in strength that individual companies rarely operated independently; the aggregated remnants of the regiment were directed by the regimental field commander, Colonel Francis Key Shaaff, through the final months of the Petersburg siege and the Appomattox Campaign.
The company continued with the regiment through Chickamauga, the Knoxville Campaign, the Overland Campaign, and the Siege of Petersburg. Colonel Oates himself was not spared from the war's costs: he was wounded at Brown's Ferry in Tennessee in October 1863, and when he transferred to command the 48th Alabama in July 1864, his right arm was shattered by a minie ball at Petersburg in August of that year. He spent the rest of the war recovering from the wound.
Post-War Legacy
William C. Oates returned to Alabama after the war and built one of the most distinguished post-war careers of any former Confederate officer. He served multiple terms in the United States House of Representatives and was elected Governor of Alabama in 1894. He later commanded brigades as a Brigadier General during the Spanish-American War, serving in a Union uniform he had once fought against. Oates devoted considerable effort in his later years to securing a monument at Little Round Top honoring the 15th Alabama, a campaign that ultimately failed amid disputes over the battlefield's commemorative policies. He published his memoir, "The War Between the Union and the Confederacy and Its Lost Opportunities," in 1905, providing one of the fullest firsthand accounts of the regiment's service.
The 15th Alabama was permanently associated in public memory with the assault on Little Round Top, an engagement that became one of the defining set-pieces of Civil War literature and film. The publication of Michael Shaara's novel "The Killer Angels" in 1974 and its adaptation into the 1993 film "Gettysburg" brought the confrontation between Oates and Chamberlain to a wide national audience. Oates figures as a significant character in both works.
Post-War Legacy
William C. Oates returned to Alabama after the war and built one of the most distinguished post-war careers of any former Confederate officer. He served multiple terms in the United States House of Representatives and was elected Governor of Alabama in 1894. He later commanded brigades as a Brigadier General during the Spanish-American War, serving in a Union uniform he had once fought against. Oates devoted considerable effort in his later years to securing a monument at Little Round Top honoring the 15th Alabama, a campaign that ultimately failed amid disputes over the battlefield's commemorative policies. He published his memoir, "The War Between the Union and the Confederacy and Its Lost Opportunities," in 1905, providing one of the fullest firsthand accounts of the regiment's service.
The 15th Alabama was permanently associated in public memory with the assault on Little Round Top, an engagement that became one of the defining set-pieces of Civil War literature and film. The publication of Michael Shaara's novel "The Killer Angels" in 1974 and its adaptation into the 1993 film "Gettysburg" brought the confrontation between Oates and Chamberlain to a wide national audience. Oates figures as a significant character in both works.
The Maine Rebels: Living Historians of Company G
The Maine Rebels portray Company G, 15th Alabama Infantry, as a member unit of the Liberty Greys, the New England confederation of Confederate Civil War living history organizations. The unit is based in Farmington, Maine, with members drawn from across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
The choice to portray Company G of the 15th Alabama is not arbitrary. No other historical unit offers New England reenactors a more direct connection to their region's own Civil War history. The 15th Alabama's assault on Little Round Top places the regiment in direct confrontation with the 20th Maine, the regiment most associated with Maine's contribution to the Union cause. Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, who commanded the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, is one of the most celebrated figures in Maine history. Portraying Company G of the regiment that challenged Chamberlain's men allows the Maine Rebels to tell both sides of one of the war's most studied engagements, often in partnership with Union reenacting groups.
The unit participates in encampments, parades, and school programs throughout New England, offering public demonstrations of Civil War era military drill, period equipment, and camp life. The group actively takes part in the biennial Civil War reenactment at Fort Knox in Prospect, Maine, as well as events at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, Maine, and other venues across the region. Their encampment setups typically include a main military camp, weapons demonstration components, and interpretive displays of period military equipment and surgical instruments.
The Maine Rebels' connection to Confederate Civil War memory in New England extends beyond the battlefield. Approximately one hour from Farmington, the town of Gray is the burial site of an unidentified Confederate soldier known only as "The Stranger," one of seven Confederate soldiers buried in Maine. Although no documented link exists between this soldier and the historical 15th Alabama, the Maine Rebels have adopted his story as part of their mission. In 1862, the body of a Confederate soldier was inadvertently shipped to Gray in place of the remains of Lieutenant Charles H. Colley of the 10th Maine Volunteers, who had died of wounds received at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. The family discovered the error when the coffin was opened. Unable to identify the soldier or arrange for a proper return of his remains, the Ladies of Gray, a civic organization composed of mothers of soldiers, buried him in Gray Village Cemetery. His identity has never been established, though local historians have speculated that he and Colley may have died in proximity to each other near Alexandria, Virginia. For more than 160 years, Gray residents have honored the Stranger, and members of the local American Legion Post have dressed as soldiers of the 15th Alabama to pay tribute at annual Memorial Day ceremonies. The Maine Rebels participate in this tradition, placing Confederate Civil War reenactors in one of the most unlikely settings in New England.
Members of the group have noted in public commentary that portraying Confederate soldiers in New England occasionally draws mixed reactions from the public. The unit's consistent position is that its mission is educational and historical, honoring the experiences and courage of soldiers on both sides of the conflict, not the political causes for which they fought.
The Maine Rebels operate as a non-profit, family-oriented organization and welcome individuals interested in Civil War living history, regardless of prior experience.
Selected Sources
National Park Service. "15th Infantry Regiment (Alabama)." Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CAL0015RI
Wikipedia Contributors. "15th Alabama Infantry Regiment." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_Alabama_Infantry_Regiment
Ohio State University eHistory Project. "Henry Pioneers, Co. G, 15th Alabama Infantry: Muster Roll." https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/Regimental/alabama/confederate/15thAlabama/musterroll
Oates, William C. The War Between the Union and the Confederacy and Its Lost Opportunities. Washington and New York: The Neal Publishing Company, 1905.
Rigdon, John C. Historical Sketch and Roster of the Alabama 15th Infantry Regiment. Confederate Regimental History series, 2015.
Faust, James P. The Fighting Fifteenth Alabama Infantry: A Civil War History and Roster. Pelican Publishing, 2014.
Miller, Rex. The Fighting Fifteenth: A Regimental History of the Fifteenth Alabama Infantry, CSA, 1861-1865. Round Rock, TX: Patrex Press, 2001.
Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The Second Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Historical Marker Database. "Governor William Calvin Oates / Colonel W. C. Oates, CSA at Gettysburg." https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=86116
WABI-TV News. "Fort Knox Hosts Civil War Encampment." July 16, 2022. https://www.wabi.tv/2022/07/16/fort-knox-hosts-civil-war-encampment/
Bangor Daily News. Reporting on the Stranger burial at Gray Village Cemetery, Gray, Maine.
New England Historical Society. Background on the unidentified Confederate soldier buried at Gray Village Cemetery, Gray, Maine.
greymaine.org. "The Stranger." Gray, Maine community history resource.
Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH). Muster rolls and regimental history files for the 15th Alabama Infantry. digital.archives.alabama.gov. Archives.alabama.gov/research/CivilWarService.aspx
FindAGrave. Memorial no. 26619030: Alexander Allen Lowther. findagrave.com
American Battlefield Trust. "William C. Oates." battlefields.org/learn/biographies/william-c-oates
Sources for tables:
Ohio State University eHistory Muster Roll for Company G, 15th Alabama Infantry; Wikipedia, "15th Alabama Infantry Regiment"; Rigdon, John C., Historical Sketch and Roster of the Alabama 15th Infantry Regiment; National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System; Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), muster rolls and regimental history files, digital.archives.alabama.gov; FindAGrave memorial no. 26619030 (Alexander A. Lowther); American Battlefield Trust, biography of William C. Oates. Note: Company G officer records for 1864-1865 are incomplete in published secondary sources. The ADAH muster rolls confirm the absence of a permanent captain following Gettysburg; post-Gettysburg command passed to surviving junior officers whose individual records are not fully resolved in currently available sources.
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