This post was inspired by the Civil War diary of Prisoner of War Elisha Rice Reed but it really started on Friday, August 9, 1963 when I first visited Andersonville. 

What I learned that day made me aware of a dark world I'd never conceived. I returned in 1976 and again in 2015 when I visited the POW museum.

We have a Confederate Prisoner of War in our family. William Duncan Register (1842-1862).PVT William D. Register (1842-1862) - Find a Grave Memorial

1st Regiment, Alabama Infantry

Overview:

1st Infantry Regiment completed its organization at Pensacola, Florida, in March, 1861. The men were from the counties of Tallapoosa, Pike, Lowndes, Wilcox, Talladega, Barbour, and Macon. For a year it manned the batteries at Pensacola, then with 1,000 men moved to Missouri where all but a detachment were captured at Island No. 10. The prisoners were exchanged during September, 1862, and it was soon ordered to Port Hudson. Here the unit endured many hardships, and nearly 500 were captured on July 9, 1863. Exchanged and reorganized with 610 effectives the 1st joined the Army of Tennessee and served in General Quarles' and Shelley's Brigade. It took an active part in the Atlanta and Tennessee Campaigns, and ended the war in North Carolina. Its casualties were high at Peach Tree Creek and were again heavy at Franklin and Nashville. Less than 100 surrendered in April, 1865. The field officers were Colonels Henry D. Clayton and I.G.W. Steedman, Lieutenant Colonel Michael B. Locke, and Majors S.L. Knox and Jere N. Williams.

Battle Unit Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)

AI Overview

The 1st Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi Infantry Regiment was a Confederate unit organized in December 1861, composed of four companies from Alabama, four from Tennessee, and two from Mississippi

. Commanded by Col. Alpheus Baker, it served in the Western Department and was captured at Island No. 10 in April 1862. 

Key Details of the 1st Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi Infantry:

• Organization: Formed to combine troops from multiple states in the region.
• Field Officers: Colonel Alpheus Baker (Alabama), Lieutenant Colonel William T. Avery (Tennessee), Major Adolphus P. Cansler (Mississippi).
• Service & Capture: The regiment was captured at Island No. 10 in April 1862.
• Post-Exchange: After being exchanged, the Tennessee companies were merged into the 42nd Tennessee Regiment. 

Other "First" Regiments to Note:

• 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment: Organized in March 1861 at Pensacola, FL; saw action at Island No. 10 and Port Hudson.
• 1st Tennessee Infantry (Turney's): Organized April 1861; served in the Army of Northern Virginia.
• 1st Mississippi Infantry (Johnston's): Captured at Fort Donelson and Port Hudson. 

• At the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16, 1864, the 1st again faced heavy fighting, serving near the center of the Confederate line on the battle’s opening day and withdrawing only when ordered to retreat. On the second day, the Alabamians once more found themselves near the center of the fighting. They successfully repelled repeated Union attacks until realizing in horror that the Confederate left flank was disintegrating, forcing members of the regiment to flee to avoid capture. On December 24, after a long and difficult retreat, survivors joined the remnants of the Army of Tennessee just south of the Tennessee River.

  In 1865, the 1st Alabama received orders to join Confederate forces assembling in North Carolina for a last stand. Of the more than 3,800 men who had once served in the regiment, only about 100 were left—but those 100 or so answered the call. In what would be the Army of Tennessee’s final battle and the war’s last major clash, the 1st fought at Bentonville, N.C., on March 19-21, 1865.

Elisha Rice Reed 1837-1923 

Papers, 1861-1862 - Full view - UWDC - UW-Madison Libraries

Pvt Elisha Rice Reed (1836-1923) - Find a Grave Memorial

 This guy has captured my imagination. He's from Wisconsin and died in Madison which fits with my Madison experience plus we have the recent desecration of the Camp Randall Confederate graves. William Duncan Register survived Camp Randall but died after being transferred to Camp Douglas.

Pirce Register is buried with the other Confederate prisoners of war in Madison.  Pvt Pirce Register (unknown-1862) - Find a Grave Memorial

Confederate Rest - Wikipedia

START WITH THE STORY - Confederate Rest

13a) Confederate Rest Cemetery...Forest Hill (Madison, WI.) - Find a Grave Virtual Cemetery

 

The back (western) wall of the Lutheran Theological Seminary edifice, circa 1897.

(from the link) Despite his noncombatant role on the battle’s final two days, to Elisha Reed, July 2 and 3 produced terrible memories. “The second day was full of horrors to those of us who were at the seminary as prisoners,” he wrote; “the surrounding grounds being elevated, were occupied by about 140 pieces of Confederate artillery, the music of which, altogether with the effects of shots from the Union artillery upon the building and surrounding grounds, occasioned the most extreme anguish to us all. The noise, resounding through the building, was worse than ordinary artillery.” That day, he described, a “lieutenant with a leg off, was thrown into nervous excitement and died,” while another man whose arm was “shattered” went insane, “rushed wildly about the building, down stairs and away—and he never came back.” Yet even at that, Reed grieved, “The third day was worse than the second.”[7]

It was July 3, as well, which provided Reed with a sight that would forever fill his memories of Gettysburg. “On the afternoon of the third day I happened to be up in the cupola of the Seminary and had a good view of Picket’s [sic] charge,” he wrote. “There was also a rebel Lieu’t in the cupola,” alongside about a dozen “Yanks” (likely several wounded soldiers, like Reed) who “rejoiced exceedingly when they saw the result” of the failed Confederate assault a mile-and-a-half southward. “We went below and ‘told the boys,’” Reed proudly reminisced, who “rejoiced with a loud noise” while gathered in the chapel, “the largest room in the building.”[8]

Then the Confederate lieutenant—who, Reed added, “saw nothing to make him rejoice”—entered the room, “slowly, sadly, and silently.” He “walked around for some time,—looking at no one—speaking to no one.” Eventually, Reed explained, “like the ‘pent-up thunders in the earth beneath’ he broke forth in a raging torrent of long suppressed wrath.” As if he could not himself believe it, Reed implored anyone reading his passage, “Imagine if you can an enraged southern fire-eater pouring out volcanic clouds of vigorous and vehement volumes of profanity—calling Lee a fool,” and verbalizing “all the profane adverbs and adjectives qualifying” the word “fool.” The Confederate chieftain should never have set out on his mission of “undertaking to dislodge” the Union army “from that position over there,” the irreverent Rebel declared.[9]

According to Reed, the irate southerner went so far as to say that Lee’s army “can’t do it—and he knows he can’t do it. Then,” he pondered, “why in hell does he try to do it”? By Reed’s recollection, the Confederate officer’s tantrum continued for another paragraph’s worth of text, which featured a description of Pickett’s Charge as nothing more than “sending those men into a rat-trap from which they could never get out.” Through all of the pontification and vulgarities, Reed observed, “In short—it was evident to him that somebody had blundered.”[10]

Elisha Rice Reed: The Wounded Wisconsinite Who Witnessed Pickett’s Charge - National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Elisha R. Reed.pdf - Google Drive