Adjutant Albert L. Peel Photo
Adjutant Albert L. Peel
Killed, Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864
Confederate Veteran, Volume 10, Page 367
"THE LAST ROLL"
Dr. Robert H. Peel writes from Holly Springs, Miss.:
Adjutant Albert Peel, son of Volney Peel, Sr., was reared in Marshall
County, Miss. When the war between the States began he was a student at
the Kentucky Military Institute, and was seventeen years of age. When
his native State seceded from the Union he left the institute, hurried
home, and enlisted for the war. His company became part of the
Nineteenth Regiment. It was commanded by Col Kit Mott, of Holly
Springs, Miss., and Lieut. Col. L. Q. C. Lamar, afterwards United States
Senator. In May, 1861, the Regiment was sent to Richmond, Va., and
camped on the old fair grounds, where young Peel was employed as drill
master, and, although a mere boy, he won the confidence and esteem of
every soldier of the regiment. He was by the side of Col. Mott when he
was killed, at Williamsburg, Va., and then with Col. L. Q. C. Lamar, who
succeeded to the command of the regiment. Adjutant Peel was in every
battle fought by his command in Virginia from Williamsburg to
Spotsylvania.
Gen. N. H. Harris, of Vicksburg, Miss., who commanded the Nineteenth
after Col. Lamar resigned, was then a brigadier in command of four
Mississippi regiments, and with others was ordered by Gen. Lee to
recapture and to hold this angle of breastworks, which had fallen into
the hands of the enemy the preceding night. This was one of the most
desperate battles of the Civil War, and has ever been so considered by
both Federal and Confederates who took part in it.
Adjutant Peel had thrown aside his sword and with a very fine rifle,
captured from the enemy, he was shooting as rapidly as he could reload.
He fell, shot through the head at the foot of an oak tree which had been
cut down by deadly missiles. His body was found by his brother, Dr. R.
H. Peel, who was then surgeon of the regiment, and it was buried after
dark. The stump of this oak tee at the root of which Adjutant Peel fell
measured at the time Twenty-two inches in diameter, and is now among the
war relics in the museum at Washington City. We buried Adjutant Peel's
body beside his colonel, the gallant T. J. Hardin, who was also killed
in the battle.
Two or three years after the close of the war those noble women of
Spotsylvania wrote to me that the graves of Col. Hardin and Adjutant
Peel had been found and the remains removed to the Confederate
cemetery. God bless those noble Southern women, and the grand old State
of Virginia, and her ever-loyal people! Four years were spent with them
during the war has endeared them to me forever.
There were five brothers and four cousins of Adjutant Peel engaged in
the Civil War, of whom six were killed and wounded and one imprisoned at
Fort Delaware. When the army reached Petersberg there was but one of
these Peels known to be living, through the one who was in prison was
released after the surrender, and the youngest brother (Volney Peel) who
was with Forrest's Cavalry, recovered from his wounds, and is still
living. I have a photograph that was taken at the commencement of the
war. It shows the uniform worn by company I., Nineteenth Mississippi
troops before being mustered into service. Albert Peel's rank was first
lieutenant and adjutant of the Nineteenth Mississippi Regiment, C. S. A.
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