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| 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment | |
|---|---|
.svg) .svg) Flag of Alabama in 1861 (obverse and reverse) | |
| Active | April 23, 1862 – April 8, 1865 |
| Disbanded | April 8, 1865 |
| Country |  Confederate States of America |
| Branch |  Confederate States Army |
| Role | Infantry |
| Equipment | 1853 Enfield Rifle 1861 Springfield Rifle |
| Engagements | American Civil War Pensacola Campaign Kentucky Campaign Munfordville Perryville Stones River Campaign Murfreesboro Tullahoma Campaign Chattanooga Campaign Chattanooga II Chickamauga Siege of Chattanooga Ringgold Gap Atlanta Campaign Rocky Face Ridge Resaca New Hope Church Pickett's Mill Kennesaw Mountain Siege of Atlanta Atlanta Jonesboro Franklin-Nashville Campaign Spring Hill Franklin Nashville Carolina Campaign Bentonville |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Samuel Adams Robert Crittenden |
The 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment was an infantry unit from Alabama that served in the Confederate States Army during the U.S. Civil War. Recruited from the southeastern counties of Butler, Dale, Coffee, Covington, Russell and Montgomery, it saw extensive service with the Confederate Army of Tennessee before being nearly annihilated at the Battle of Franklin in 1864. Survivors from the regiment continued to serve until the final capitulation of General Joseph Johnston in North Carolina in 1865.
In addition to the counties named above, the 33rd Alabama drew recruits from three modern Alabama counties that did not yet exist in 1862: Geneva County, which was then a part of Dale and Coffee counties; Crenshaw County, which was formed from Covington and other nearby counties after the war; and Houston County, which then formed a part of Dale and Henry Counties.
Initially assigned to the defense of Confederate forts in Pensacola Bay, Florida, the 33rd was quickly transferred to duty in the Army of Tennessee, where it saw its first significant action at the Battle of Perryville. It went on to fight at Stone's River, Chickamauga, the Siege of Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign (including Ringgold Gap and Kennesaw Mountain), and the disastrous Franklin-Nashville Campaign in late 1864.
From just after the Battle of Perryville through the Battle of Franklin, the 33rd fought under the "Stonewall of the West": Major General Patrick Cleburne, an Irish-born officer whom General Robert E. Lee once referred to as "a meteor shining from a clouded sky" for his battlefield prowess.[1] Though it took horrific losses at Perryville (where it suffered eighty-two percent casualties) and at Franklin (where it lost two-thirds of its numbers), it held together with reduced numbers until the final Carolina Campaign in 1865.
Historians of the 33rd benefit from extremely detailed accounts of this regiment's service by soldiers who served in it; the most important of these was written by Private W.E. Matthews of Co. B, who left records of nearly every aspect of regimental life from food to clothing to nicknames, sundries and even the soldiers' opinions of two different service rifles they were issued.