3rd Alabama Infantry Company A "Mobile Cadets"

From Seven Pines to Sharpsburg and Chancellorsville to Spotsylvania, the Third Alabama Regiment played a key role in the Civil War. One of the first infantry units from the Deep South to make the journey to Virginia in 1861, the Third Alabama was the first to cross the Potomac into Maryland and to enter the streets of Gettysburg in 1863.

"For the young men of the Mobile Cadets, the heady excitement of the first months of 1861 must then have seemed like a dream come true. Here at last was the opportunity to make the fantasies of military glory a reality. The company had been formed in 1845, and then as now contained some of the finest youth from the wealthiest families of Mobile. Alabama. Since the early days, the cadets, while excelling at military drill and target practice, had been little more than a social club. Now, with the Federal evacuation of Fort Sumter, the possibility of war seemed very real. So real, in fact, that the captain of the cadets was waiting in the telegraph office following the news of the evacuation when the call for volunteers was received. A return message was immediately sent to the Alabama governor offering the services of the Mobile Cadets to the Confederacy. Within days, the cadets moved to Montgomery, where they were designated Company A, 3rd Regiment Alabama Infantry. The 3rd was the first Alabama command to leave the state for Virginia, where on May 4, 1861, at Lynchburg, they were mustered into Confederate service.

While at Lynchburg, the cadets received M1841 Mississippi rifles with saber bayonets, which were shipped to that point from Alabama's Mount Vernon Arsenal. From Lynchburg. the 3rd Alabama was ordered to Norfolk, Virginia, where it remained until the city was evacuated on May 5. 1862. The Mobile Cadets found the action they had looked for in the Seven Days' battles before Richmond. At Sewn Pines and Malvern Hill, the 3rd Alabama lost a total of 367 men killed and wounded. At Malvern Hill, the dead of the 3rd Alabama included two Mobile Cadets, both killed bearing the regimental colors."

In the Antietam Campaign:
In his report of the battles of Boonsboro and Sharpsburg, General Rodes wrote: "The men and officers behaved well, but Colonel Gordon's Sixth Alabama, Major Hobson's Fifth Alabama, and Colonel Battle's Third Alabama deserve special mention for admirable conduct during the whole fight.'' The Regiment was among those few defending Turner's Gap on South Mountain on September 14th, and in the fierce fighting in the Sunken Road during the midday of the 17th.