"“Probably not twenty percent of those serving in the Confederate armies owned or ever expected to own a slave. Some entire companies and regiments came from sections of the country where a Negro was rarely seen and they were among our bravest and most faithful soldiers.


They fought against interference in the affairs of their State, dictation by an alien people, invasion and subjugation of their country… Their fighting blood was up and they were ready to fight it out at any cost.” Hugh W. Henry 22nd Alabama Infantry


Five Color Bearers of the 22nd Alabama were killed carrying their flag at Chickamauga.




This regiment was organized at Montgomery, Alabama November, 1861, and armed by private enterprise. It first served in Mobile, Alabama; from there it was ordered to Corinth, Mississippi and reached Tennessee in time for the Battle of Shiloh, where it suffered severe loss. It fought at Munfordville, 14 to 16 September 1862; at Perryville, 8 October, and at Murfreesboro, 31 December to 2 January 1863. 


It took a very brilliant part in the impetuous assault on Rosecrans' army at the Battle of Chickamauga, 20 September, and suffered severely, losing almost two-thirds of its forces, the killed including five color-bearers. It served in the campaign in Georgia, losing heavily in the battles around Atlanta, Georgia July, 1864, and at Jonesboro, 31 August and 1 September. It was also distinguished at Franklin, 30 November; at Nashville, 15th and 16 December; at Kinston, North Carolina, 14 March 1865, and at Bentonville, 19th to 21 March. In April it was consolidated with the Twenty-fifth, Thirty-ninth and Fiftieth, under Colonel Toulmin."