The following historical information is about the service of both the company, regiment, and the men, of the "Lauderdale Zouaves," Company F of the Thirteenth (13th) Mississippi Infantry Regiment, C.S. Volunteers, which served in the American Civil War from May 1861 to April 1865. If you have any corrections, suggestions, or additional information that you wish to contribute, feel free to submit the information to the Webmaster.

The companies were ordered to Corinth and enlisted in the Confederate service from May 13th to 15th, 1861, for twelve months. The date of organization of the Thirteenth Regiment is May 14th, 1861, William Barksdale being elected Colonel. Soon afterward the regiment was ordered to Union City, Tennessee, where it remained attached to the army under General Leonidas Polk until ordered to Lynchburg, Virginia, whither the regiment started on July 14th. Immediately on reaching Lynchburg they were ordered to Manassas, and reached the railroad junction during the night of July 20th and the morning of the 21st, the day of the battle. As soon as possible they were advanced to the field, with much marching and countermarching in the intense heat and stifling dust. The orders were to report to General James Longstreet, but for convenience they were attached to Brigadier General Jubal A. Early's brigade, which was stationed in the rear of Beauregard's line on Bull Run, near McLeans ford. The famous battle of the 21st was brought on by the Federals attacking on the Confederate flank, behind the run. This battle raged from ten o'clock, and General Early did not get orders to participate in it until two, when he immediately marched to the scene of conflict. Beauregard reported, "was marched by the Holtham house, across the fields to the left. . . . and under a severe fire into a position near Chinn's house, outflanking the enemy's right. At this time, the enemy had formed a line of truly formidable proportions . The woods and fields were filled with their masses of infantry and cavalry. It was a magnificent spectacle as they threw forward their cloud of skirmishers on the slopes of the ridge for another attack. But as Early formed his line, Arnold Elzey's brigade and other regiments advanced, almost simultaneously, with great spirit from their various positions. At the same time, too, Early resolutely assailed their right flank and rear." It was then the rout began. Casualties, 6 wounded in the Thirteenth.

After this the regiment was assigned to the brigade of Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans, including the Seventeenth and Eighteenth, stationed in the vicinity of Leesburg. On October 20th, they marched from Goose Creek to Fort Evans, on the Potomac. October 21st a force of the enemy crossed the river from Maryland, under Colonel Baker, and after the first encounter had been sustained by a company of the Seventeenth Mississippi, four detached companies, including Fletcher's (Company D) of the Thirteenth became warmly engaged and drove back the Federal advances. While the other regiments met the Federal advance from Balls Bluff and achieved a famous victory, Barksdale's remaining nine companies held back the other columns of the enemy at Edwards ferry, remaining there after the others had gone back to Leesburg with the Federal prisoners. Next day Barksdale attacked the Federals who had crossed the river on his front and drove them to the river with heavy loss. The loss of the regiment was, 4 killed. 2 wounded, 1 missing. Eckford's (Company C) and Randall's (Company H) companies were the advance line in this engagement. The Attala men, under Fletcher, were distinguished in the Ball's Bluff battle, several of them being among the first to reach a Federal battery, which was captured.

The winter camp was at Catoctin Mountain, near Leesburg. The regiment was assigned to the Mississippi brigade organized under Brigadier General Richard Griffith, who took command at a brigade review at Camp Carolina on December 9th, 1861.

After the retreat to Culpepper and transfer to Yorktown, the regiment was reorganized for three years or the duration of the war on April 26th, 1862. They were not in battle on the Yorktown line or during the retreat, and though under fire at Seven Pines, were not actively engaged.

Before the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, June of 1862, Griffith's brigade included with the Thirteenth, the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Twenty-first, and was part of Major General John B. Magruder's division, which first went into battle on the 29th, on the railroad near Savage Station. In the opening of this action General Griffith was mortally wounded, and his place was taken by Colonel Barksdale. The Thirteenth was employed during this battle as reserve for McLaw's division. At the battle of Malvern Hill on July 1st, the brigade was formed in line of battle in a wood, under fire of batteries and gunboats, after which, at about six o'clock in the evening, they made a charge, attempting to carry the Federal batteries. Here Lieutenant-Colonel Carter was wounded, and Major McElroy took command. Colonel Barksdale praised the conduct of Major Inge, Adjutant-General, and Captain Costin, Aide-de-Camp. Major Watts and Hawkins, of the brigade staff, were required to attend the dying General. The Thirteenth gained an advanced position and held it for nearly an hour without support. The loss of the Thirteenth in both engagements was 28 killed and 107 wounded.

McElroy, promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and commanded the regiment in the Maryland campaign September of 1862. With McLaw's division they diverged from Lee's column to co-operate with Jackson's corps in the capture of Harper's Ferry. On the 12th Barksdale's and Kershaw's South Carolina brigades began to scale the Maryland heights, Major J.M Bradley commanding the pickets on the left of the line, skirmishing with the Federal troops on the mountain. Next day Kershaw attacked the entrenched line in front and Barksdale on the flank and rear, and possession of the mountain was secured after severe fighting. The Thirteenth was left on the mountain as a garrison when the brigade moved to Brownsville to meet an expected attack, and thence to join the main army. They reached the battlefield of Sharpsburg after the battle had been raging for several hours. The brigade had been on constant duty for five or six days, marching throughout two nights, and many of the men had succumbed to fatigue. The brigade went into battle with less than 900 men and officers, formed line of battle in an open field swept by a terrible fire of artillery, advanced and drove the enemy from a wood in front, and held that position, the Thirteenth and Eighteenth defeating a flank attack. McElroy, though wounded, remained in command of his regiment. Surgeon Austin was honorably mentioned for faithful attention to the wounded. The regiment, taking 202 into battle, lost 6 killed, 54 wounded, 2 missing.

At Fredericksburg on December 11th, 1862, Colonel Carter marched his regiment to Carolina Street at five o'clock in the morning, where they remained until four p.m. to support the Seventeenth at the riverside. Ten sharpshooters were sent to assist Colonel Fiser, but no other service was required of the regiment. But they were all the time under a very heavy and destructive fire from the Federal batteries. After the enemy effected a landing, the Thirteenth, holding Princess Anne Street, by a determined fight held them back for two hours. Captain G.L. Donald, in command of several companies, was commended by the Colonel; Captain J.L. Clark was killed by a solid shot early in the morning; Captain T.W. Thurman was dangerously wounded and captured, and Lieutenant J. M. Stovall, missing, was supposed to be dead. The total loss was 7 killed, 59 wounded, 14 captured.

On April 29th, 1863, part of the Federal army crossed the Rappahannock at Deep Run, and Barksdale's brigade was left with Early's division to observe them, while the rest of Lee's army moved toward Chancellorsville. Early was moving in the same direction when the Federal troops made another crossing at Fredericksburg. Barksdale had a line of three miles to cover, with the Thirteenth on the right. After a desperate resistance against the entire Federal advance, Barksdale's line was broken, when he moved the Thirteenth and Seventeenth in position to check the enemy and protect the rear, which they did, with the aid of artillery. The loss of the Regiment was 7 killed, and 43 wounded. They were quartered at Fredericksburg until June 3rd, when they began the march to the valley and Pennsylvania.

At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 2nd, 1863, the Thirteenth, in Barksdale's brigade, fought in the battle against the south wing of the Federal army. At six in the evening, when Sickles still held the Peach Orchard after a terrific fight, McLaws ordered an assault, and the storming columns of Barksdale and Wofford, "yelling like demons, black with smoke and lusting for hand-to-hand conflict," soon opened a gap in the line of blue. The Federals fell back toward and across Plum Run, toward the base of Round Top, and the onslaught was continued. "Barksdale, conspicuous on horseback, led his Southern riflemen, who single handed had barred the passage of the whole Federal army at Fredericksburg, right into the hostile masses, where he fell mortally wounded, and whence the remnants of his gallant troops cut their way back with difficulty through the enveloping masses of Blue infantry." Barksdale's loss in killed and wounded was the heaviest of any brigade in Longstreet's corps and the heaviest of any in Lee's army, except two North Carolina Brigades and Davis' Mississippi brigade. The loss of the Thirteenth was 28 killed, 137 wounded, of whom 86 were left in the field hospital when the army retreated.

After the return to Virginia the regiment participated in the movement of Longstreets corps by way of Richmond and South Carolina to Atlanta and North Georgia, reaching Ringgold after the battle of Chickamauga was begun. By a night march they arrived on the field on the morning of September 20th and went into battle in support of General Hood, who broke the Federal line. Their last fighting that day was at Snodgrass Hill, where the victory was completed at dusk. Casualties, 1 killed, 7 wounded.

Advancing toward Chattanooga they were on duty during the siege until November 4th, when they left the base of Lookout Mountain for the campaign in East Tennessee. They crossed the Tennessee River, skirmished at Campbell's Station on November 16th, and were in line for the siege of Knoxville about November 20th. Under the command of Colonel McElroy, with the Seventeenth Regiment, and supported by three Georgia regiments, all under the command of Brigadier General Benjamin G. Humphreys, they made the famous assault upon Fort Loudon on November 29th, 1863. After working their way through a tangled abatis, they charged the works, through a wire netting and a deep ditch, and clambered up a parapet ten or twelve feet high, slippery with ice. Some of the officers and men gained the summit of the parapet but they were shot down and dragged others down in falling. All the time they were under a furious fire from another part of the fort. Here Kennon McElroy was killed. "The loss of the heroic McElroy is irreparable, wrote General Humphreis. "He was shot at the angle of the wall at the head of his regiment, wrote General Longstreet. "He was a man of very fine courage, united to a self-possession on all occasions, with a knowledge of his duties and a natural capacity for command which inspired confidence and made him always conspicuous. After leaving Knoxville the brigade was sent on December 16th, to Clinch Mountain Gap, where a body of the enemy fled at their approach. Major Donald, commanding the Thirteenth, was sent in pursuit, and he captured the camp and outfit of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Indiana, which was very welcome.

The winter quarters were established at Russellville, Tennessee, whence they moved-in the last of March to Bristol. At Gordonsville, Virginia, on May 3rd, they received orders to rejoin General Lee on the Rappahannock. On May 6th, with the advance of Longstreets corps, they went into battle in the Wilderness, Major Donald commanding, winning new renown on that bloody field. They were in almost constant action and frequent battles throughout the campaign of 1864, at Spotsylvania Courthouse from May 8th to 12; at Hanover Junction on May 27th; at Cold Harbor early in June, and at Petersburg on June 29th. In the latter part of July they were sent from the Petersburg lines to support Early in the Shenandoah Valley, where they were in the engagements at Berryville, Charlestown, Rockfish Gap, and Cedar Creek.

In the Wilderness battles the regiment had 18 killed, 61 wounded, 22 missing. Among the severely wounded were Lieutenant William Davis (Company C), Captain Archibald A. Currie (Company F), Lieutenant R.C. Kelly (Company I). The returns, in October, show Major Donald in command of the brigade.

At the battle of Cedar Creek on October 29th, the brigade was conspicuous in taking the Federal position in the early part of the battle. When the return attack was delivered by Sheridan the brigade met the advance coolly and with an effective fire. It was not until their flank was exposed by the panic in other commands that they yielded.

On November 20th they returned to Richmond and during the winter they were posted at Garnett's farm and on the Darbytown and Newmarket roads. From April 1st to 2nd they marched through Richmond and began-the retreat to Appomattox Courthouse. In the final returns the remnant of the heroic Thirteenth Mississippi Infantry Regiment was commanded by 2nd Lieutenant William H. Davis of Company H, and numbered only four (4) officers And seventy-five (75) enlisted men.

The "Lauderdale Zouaves" were organized in January 1861 by local farmer Kennon McElroy; the volunteers who composed the company came largely from Lauderdale County. The men assembled in the town of Lauderdale Station to train and learn the school of the soldier, and it was there on March 30th, 1861, that they were mustered into state service.

In May 1861 per orders of the Governor of Mississippi the company moved to Corinth, Mississippi, where it would come together with nine other companies from throughout the state. On May 14th, 1861, the company was mustered into Confederate States service as Company G of the 13th Mississippi Volunteer Infantry Regiment for the term of twelve months service. The company moved with the regiment into Tennessee, and the into Virginia where it joined the forces of the Army of the Shenandoah, and was engaged in the battle of First Manassas, as well as being present in the other actions of the regiment in Virginia leading into April of 1862.

On April 26th, 1862, the regiment's original term of service (twelve months) expired, and the men reorganized themselves for three years service, or the duration of the war, and held elections for new officers at both the regimental and company levels. As a result of this reorganization the Lauderdale Zouaves became Company F of the regiment, and Captain McElroy was elected as Major of the regiment, with 2nd Lieutenant Robert A. Daniels becoming the new Captain of the company.

The "Lauderdale Zouave" would serve along the other companies of the 13th Mississippi and suffer the same hardships through the fighting in front of Richmond, the Maryland Campaign, the battles of Fredericksburg and Mayre’s Heights (1863), Gettysburg, the operations against Knoxville in Tennessee, and the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek, and the siege of Richmond and Petersburg. When the company finally stacked its arms at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 10th, 1865, it had upon its rolls the names of 136 officers and men, of which 26 had been killed or died of wounds, 25 had died of disease, and eighteen had been captured, of those 136 names only four of the Zouaves answered the roll call on April 10th at Appomattox (H.P. Bolling, W.B. Radford, P.H. Simmons, and R.F. Wilkenson).

Artists Rendition (La Guerra Civile Americana 1861-1865)

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