11th AL Cavalry CSA Ancestor

[rstoneham77]

Hello everyone, I'm new but I spent some time "lurking" yesterday and you seem like a nice crowd. I hope I fit in okay.

My great-great-grandfather served in the CSA, in the 11th AL Cavalry (Company F).

There is not very much info online about the 11th AL Cavalry and I am very curious about where they fought, what they did, etc.

I was hoping that some of you might know more about it or know a good source for me to use.

Here is what I do know so far: William Thomas Askew (b1835 TN) enlisted in May 1862 at Pride Station (?) and was paroled in May 1865 in Pond Springs Decatur AL. His Colonel was John Burtwell, and Captains were Bill Julian and John Steele. He was never wounded or captured. He entered as a Private and left as a Sgt or Corp. I'm not sure which, I've found it both ways, one on a muster roll and one on his tombstone.

He wrote down his battles, but they were really hard to read. I'm pretty sure one was Athens and one was Cross Roads. The others were harder to read. I believe was one Red Sulphur Tressel (trestle?) but the last one was impossible to read. It was a G, then a bunch of hills, then town. It could be any combination of r's, e's, i's, n's or u's.

Information about him would be nice, but what I'm really looking for is info on his unit? regiment? (I'm not familiar with appropriate terminology). Any info you could share would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Becca

[samgrant]

Tried "Soldiers and Sailors" found nothing. At ancestry.com there were several William Askews, but none fitting your description.

Could his name have been spelled differently? I know my ancestors' names were often misspelled, and I had to find some of them by the misspellings.


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[rstoneham77]

I found some more info out from someone on the ancestry.com boards. I guess the 11th wasn't formed until 1864, so he was shuffled around a bit before he got there.

As far as records go, I found him in the 11th as W.T. Askew Sgt. on Ancestry. But I haven't found anything for him before that.

This other person actually has the national archives microfilm and said that William T Askew signed up at Barton Station with Capt. W R Julian in Sept, not May, 1862. According to him my ancestor was with Co. D Roddey's 4th AL Cav. then Julian's Alabama Cavalry Battalion, Co. G Forrest's Alabama Cavalry Regiment, Co. D Warren's Alabama Cavalry Battalion before being combined into Co. F 11th Alabama Cavalry! Wow. If I want to get the CSM from the NARA it would cost me over $100.00 because he was in so many different groups.

As far as the battles go he/she (can't tell from the user name) said my g-g-grandfather would have been at more battles but probably just listed what he could fit. It's funny because 2 of what he listed were actually 2 diff. names for the same battle. He listed "Cross Roads" and "Guntown" which apparently are two different names for the same conflict in MS (also known as Tishomingo Creek and Brice's Crossroads). The other two battles listed were Athens and "Red Sulphur Tressel" which should read Sulphur Trestle. Those were both in AL. All of the ones he listed were in 1864.

Even though his gravestone says he was a Corp. he was promoted to Sgt.

What I found interesting when I looked the battles up was that all of the ones he listed were Confederate Victories. I wonder if listing those was easier on his ego.

I was going to look up what battles all of those regiments, battalions, were at, but I read that just because your ancestor was with a certain group and that group was at that battle it doesn't necessarily follow that your ancestor was at that battle. So for now I can only really know the three that he listed on his pension application, at least until I can afford to get his complete military records.

Unless you know of some resources that I don't.

Thanks,
Becca

By the way (I almost just BTW'd but I remembered the rule!), I really enjoyed your posts on your Union sympathiser relative's compensation.