This history comes from Dunbar Rowland’s “Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898” and was submitted by C. J. Johnson. About the 33rd Mississippi, Rowland wrote:
“This regiment was organized at Grenada, and field officers elected April 17, 1862. The companies were enlisted for the war. It was reported as assigned to the brigade of Gen. S. A. M. Wood, in the army at Corinth, with an effective total, April 26, 1862 of 378. June 12 the regiment was at Grenada; present, 669, absent, 310; no arms but 379 condemned muskets. Corinth had then been evacuated, and the army had fallen back to Tupelo.
Brig.-Gen. John B. Villepigue’s command at Abbeville and Grenada, in June, 1862, included the Thirty-third…The brigade of General Villepigue [was] in the attack upon Rosecrans at Corinth, October 3-5, 1862. The Thirty-third is mentioned by Maj.-Gen. Mansfield Lovell, Division Commander, as one of the regiments particularly distinguished in carrying the outer line of rifle pits and the hill on which was posted a Federal battery, capturing a Parrot gun, the
Lady Richardson. In his report Villepigue said:
I wish to mention for conspicuous gallantry Col. D. W. Hurst, Thirty-third Mississippi Regiment, who drove the enemy from their intrenchments at the head of his regiment with empty guns. … The casualties of the brigade were 21 killed, 76 wounded, 71 missing.
Villepigue’s Brigade was ordered to Louisiana, where Villepigue died on the march to Port Hudson, November 9, 1862. Later in November and December Grant advanced from Memphis, on the Central Railroad; a campaign marked by the battle of Coffeeville, December 5, 1862 and Van Dorn’s raid to Holly Springs. In January, 1863, the brigade, including the Thirty-third, was under the command of General Rust, of Arkansas.
Later the regiment was part of Featherston’s Brigade. Featherston was ordered to Snyder’s Bluff, March 19, 1863 on account of the reconnaissance by Sherman’s troops and Porter’s gunboats from Steele’s Bayou to Rolling Fork and Deer Creek. He took the Twenty-second and Thirty-third Regiments and a battery, under command of Colonel Hurst, up to the junction of Rolling Fork and Deer Creek, skirmished there April 20, 1863 and followed the boats as they slowly pushed through the willow-lined bayous.
April 25, 1863 the two Mississippi Regiments (22nd and 33rd) were in a skirmish with Sherman’s troops and troops were landed from the boats to cut them off, but they retired without loss. Being transferred by steamer to Fort Pemberton, they were ordered back to Edwards May 2, 1863 to meet Grant’s movement south of Vicksburg…
The regiment participated in General Johnston’s movement to the Big Black River for the relief of Vicksburg, retreating to Jackson when Vicksburg was surrendered, and was on duty with Featherston’s Brigade around Jackson, confronted by Sherman’s troops, July 9-16, 1863. Later in the year Loring’s Division had headquarters at Canton.
Colonel Hurst was reported in command of the regiment in January, 1964; Lieut.-Col. Drake in February, 1864. General Sherman advanced from Vicksburg to Meridian in February, and Loring’s and French’s Divisions, under General Polk, retreated to Demopolis, Ala. In the spring of 1864 they moved to Montevallo, Ala., and thence to Rome, Ga., to join General Johnston in resisting the advance of Sherman from Chattanooga…
The regiment, with Featherston’s Brigade, arrived at Resaca May 12, 1864 and went into battle at once, aiding in holding McPherson at bay until reinforcements could arrive. This battle continued until the 16th, when the army crossed the river.
Near New Hope Church, May 31, the skirmishers of the brigade were reinforced to about 400 men, under Lieut.-Col. Harrod, and ordered to drive in the Federal skirmishers, which was gallantly done, after which the men pushed on against the Federal main line, intrenched, where they suffered heavy loss, about one-fourth of the number engaged. Harrod was wounded, and Capt. J. C. Sharp… was killed within ten paces of the works, his last word being ‘Forward.’
The flank movements carried the battle line to Kenesaw Mountain, where the Thirty-third took part in the famous repulse of Sherman’s assault, June 27, 1864. Early in July Johnston… was relieved by General Hood, who began a series of assaults upon Sherman’s army.
At Peachtree Creek, July 20, where the brigade charged through a difficult field, attempting to break the Federal line which was protected with rail works thrown up as the fight began, the losses of the regiment were severe. General Featherston wrote: ‘
Col. J. L. Drake, the only field officer with the Thirty-third Regiment, a gallant and excellent officer, fell beyond the enemy’s first line of works, leading his regiment in the charge and displaying the highest qualities of the true soldier…’ Capt. Moses Jackson, left in command, reported that the regiment carried the temporary rail works and advanced into a ravine 100 yards beyond, where the fighting was very stubborn. They were on the extreme right of the brigade, and without support on that flank… and were forced to retreat with the brigade. Casualties…15 officers, 144 men.
Colonel Wood, commanding the Union brigade attacked, reported:
The Twenty-sixth Wisconsin captured a stand of colors, and the skirmishers of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth New York, a battle-flag. This brigade buried the bodies of thirty-eight dead found behind and near our advanced line of battle, among whom was Colonel Drake, Thirty-third Mississippi.
The Colonel of the Twentieth Connecticut wrote that
wounded officers belonging to the Third, Thirty-third… [and] Forty-fourth Mississippi Regiments, left on the field in front of the Twentieth, remarked that they lost more men during this engagement in killed and wounded than they had before during the war. Colonel Buckingham, of the Twentieth Connecticut, wrote that
during our advance a rebel color bearer in front of the right of my regiment was killed, and a rebel officer, who sprang forward and seized the colors to bear them off was also shot dead…
The regiment was on duty in the trenches around Atlanta until the evacuation at the close of August. In the October, 1864, campaign on the Chattanooga and Atlanta Railroad, Featherston’s Brigade captured the Federal post at Big Shanty, was with Loring’s Division in the capture of Acworth, and with Stewart’s Corps in the destruction of the railroad between Dalton and Resaca, after which they moved through the mountains to Gadsden, Ala., and skirmished at Decatur, October 26-29, and moved to Tuscumbia.
Stewart’s Corps marched against Schofield at Columbia, and while Lee’s Corps attacked across the river, Stewart’s Corps joined in the movement to Spring Hill to cut off the retreat. Schofield retreated to the intrenchments at Franklin, where General Hood attacked November 30, 1864 carrying the outer line but failing to win the second in a battle of great slaughter…Featherston’s Brigade in this assault had 76 killed, 200 wounded, 76 missing. ‘The color bearer of the Thirty-third was killed some fifteen paces from the works, when Lieut. H. C. Shaw, of Company K, carried them forward, and when in the act of planting them on the works was killed, his body failing in the trench, the colors falling in the works.’
On the line in front of Nashville Featherston’s Brigade had an effective strength of 781… Capt. T. L. Cooper was in command of the regiment December 10. Loring’s Division was on the front line of Stewart’s Corps…General Thomas attacked and broke the line, carrying two redoubts and taking many prisoners, December 15, 1864 but Loring’s Division gallantly formed a new line and checked the progress of the defeat that day. Next day, however, though they repulsed every attack, they were involved in the general disaster.
At Columbia, December 20, 1864 Featherston’s Brigade was selected as one of seven for the rear guard commanded by Walthall and they held Columbia two days with the army on the march. The Thirty-third had an aggregate present of 91.
On the retreat to the Tennessee River they defeated their pursuers at Anthony’s Hill and Sugar Creek, December 25-26, 1864. On the 28th they recrossed the Tennessee River, and thence marched to Tupelo.
About the 1st of February, 1865, the remnant of Loring’s Division began the movement to reinforce General Johnston in the Carolinas. They were ordered forward from Augusta, Ga., to Newberry, S. C., February 25, 1865. In the Carolinas campaign against Sherman they participated in the battle of Kinston, March 10, 1985 and Bentonville, March 19-21, 1865 on the 19th making a gallant and successful charge, with heavy loss. Organization of army under Gen. J. E. Johnston, near Smithfield, N. C., March 31, 1865, shows Major-General Walthall in command of Stewart’s Corps; Featherston’s Brigade commanded by Maj. Martin A. Oatis, the Thirty-third Regiment by Lieut. George B. Lenoir. April 9, 1865 the First, Twenty-second and Thirty-third Regiments and First Battalion were consolidated as the Twenty-second Regiment, Col. Martin A. Oatis commanding…Hostilities were suspended April 18, the army was surrendered April 26, 1865 near Durham Station; paroled at Greensboro.”
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