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.Rand, Clayton. Sons of the South. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961. . Page 138. 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.

Recruitment and early deployments

Initial organization, officers and strength The 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized in April 1862, in Pensacola, Florida.A total of 2,399 names are recorded on the National Park Service's alphabetical roster of soldiers who served with the 33rd Alabama Infantry between 1862 and 1865. This roster may be seen at: Search For Soldiers - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service). Another roster, this one listing soldiers by companies, may be seen here: . The following table shows information about each company at the time of the regiment's initial formation:33rd Alabama, Company B

+CompanyCounties of OriginTowns of OriginOfficers/EnlistedCommanding OfficerNotes A Coffee Elba 4 / 109 Captain Mason Creed Kimmey Called "The Coffee County Blues." B Dale Newton, Skipperville, Clopton, Echo, Barnes Cross Roads 4 / 112 Captain Ward Called "The Dale County Grays." C Butler Greenville 4 / 100 Captain James Dunklin Called "The Butler County Light Infantry." D Butler Georgiana 4 / 83 Captain David McKee Called "The Butler County Volunteers." E Montgomery Montgomery 4 / Unknown Captain Henderson Norman No nickname preserved for this company. F Coffee, Covington Brandon's Store, Brayersville 4 / 85 Captain A.H. Justice Called "The Covington and Coffee Grays." G Dale Daleville 3 / 80 Captain Reuben Jackson Cooper Called "The Daleville Blues." H Butler, Montgomery Greenville, other towns 4 / 87 Captain Thomas Pugh Called "The Greenville Guards," or "The Davis Rangers." I Dale Newton, Haw Ridge, Rocky Head, Westville, Ozark 4 /92 Captain Robert Flournoy Crittenden Called "Zollikoffer's Avengers" or "Yalikoffer's Avengers." K Coffee, Russell Clintonville 4 / 79 Captain Daniel Horn Called "The Shorter Guards."

Ft. McRee

The 33rd Alabama was initially assigned to duty during March–April 1862 at Fort McRee, which sat at the entrance to Pensacola Bay, Florida, opposite the Federal-held Fort Pickens.33rd Alabama Co. B, section entitled "A False Alarm." By the time the 33rd arrived, Ft. McRee had been reduced to near-rubble by Federal warships and the guns of Ft. Pickens.Coleman, James C. (1988). Fort McRee, The Castle Built on Sand. Pensacola Historical Society. However, the local commander, General Braxton Bragg, insisted on holding it, anyway. According to one veteran's memoirs, their time at this location was spent in initial military training, drill, and guard duty.

At one point, local commanders decided to remove the coastal artillery from the badly damaged fortress, and the 33rd was asked to help. The guns were removed from their five- to eight-inch bases during daylight hours; later, at night, they were slung beneath a specially built wagon equipped with fourteen-inch-wide tires, to which thirty-six mules were hitched.W.E. Mathews Preston Diary and Regimental History, SPR393, Alabama Dept. of Archives and History, page 6. A lengthy rope was tied to the tongue, and 100 soldiers were tasked with pulling on it to help these mules haul the cannon across the sandy beach to barges on the bay, which in turn carried them on to Pensacola. The guns were replaced with wood planks shaped and painted to resemble artillery, to deceive the Federals into thinking the fort—or what was left of it at this point—was still a threat.

While on duty at Ft. McRee, the regiment had its first direct encounter with the enemy—or what it thought was the enemy, at the time. During a fierce rainstorm one night, a Federal ship endeavoring to resupply Ft. Pickens encountered difficulties and jettisoned some of its cargo (described as "many barrels of vinegar, boxes of crackers and other things"); sentinels from Co's B and I mistook these floating crates for an amphibious assault force approaching their position, and fired on them before realizing their error. Private Matthews reported engaging a "whaleboat full of Yankees" trying to salvage some of these supplies; apparently, little damage was done by either side.33rd Alabama Co. B, section entitled "A False Alarm." In this history, Matthews is credited as "W.E. Preston," which is what he changed his name to, after the war. See Note A.

Moving to Corinth Following their initial duty at Pensacola, the 33rd was ordered to report to Corinth, Mississippi, for duty with General Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi. Arriving just after the Confederate loss at Shiloh (in which Johnston was killed and replaced in command by General P.G.T. Beauregard), the 33rd was assigned to the brigade commanded by Colonel Alexander T. Hawthorn, which was part of the Army's 3rd Corps. In July 1862 Hawthorn's brigade became part of a division commanded by Major General William Hardee, and the following month the 33rd was transferred to a brigade (still in Hardee's division) commanded by Brigadier General Sterling Wood. Private Matthews reported being "strung out in muddy ditches in S.A.M. Wood's brigade," in May 1862, and also indicates that he and his comrades traded in their Pensacola muskets for "new painted Enfield Rifles out of the boxes, with Minie balls cartridges, new bayonets and scabbards." He reports that several soldiers were ill, and says that "we did not like the water [in Corinth], except that we carried from a flowing artesian well."

This same veteran later provided an anecdote from the regiment's time in Corinth:

During this time, the men of the 33rd discarded many items that they now considered non-essential, burdened down as they were on their frequent marches: "hammers, pillows, towels, books, bedclothing, clothing, big knives, tinware, sheepskins, bear skins and other paraphernalia."

The Kentucky Campaign

Moving south—then north When General Hardee was given command of the "Left Wing" of the Army of Mississippi (now commanded by General Bragg, from the 33rd's Pensacola days), Wood's Fourth Brigade was assigned to the Third Division of the Left Wing, under command of Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner.Holman, Kurt. Perryville Order of Battle: Forces Present at Perryville, October 8, 1862 (Revised July 1, 2012) unpublished paper, Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site. In concert with the rest of the army, the 33rd left Corinth at the end of July and travelled by train from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Meridian; thence to Mobile, Alabama, and Montgomery, then on to Atlanta, Georgia, and Dalton before arriving at Tyner's Station, just east of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Following this, Wood's brigade marched into the city, where they crossed the Tennessee River on "a ferry boat, propelled by two blind horses" while picking up two months' pay (at $11 per month), a $50 bounty for each soldier, new shoes and clothing, and rations.

Battle of Munfordville

Up to now, the 33rd had not seen any significant action, but this was about to change. Emboldened by recent successes achieved by Confederate raiders under Colonel John Hunt Morgan and seeking to divert Federal attention from the strategically important towns of Chattanooga and Vicksburg, Mississippi, General Bragg decided to invade Kentucky, a slave state that had remained loyal to the Union—but which still contained a large pro-Confederate minority. Pursuing Federal troops rounded up many stragglers, but refrained from attacking the main Confederate force at first. Bragg's army reached the fortified town of Munfordville, on the Green River, on September 14. Despite the huge advantage in numbers possessed by the Southerners, the Federal commander, Colonel John T. Wilder, refused the initial demand for surrender. Confederate forces attacked his works and were repulsed, settling in for a two-day siege before the Federal commander was finally persuaded to give up after being taken on a personal tour of the Confederate siege lines by General Buckner.Cozzens, Peter. This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992. ., pp. 14–15. The 33rd Alabama apparently did not take part in the earlier assault; Matthews simply reports that they lay in the woods under shell fire, expecting to be ordered to charge the fort, only to learn the next morning that the fort had capitulated. Matthews, pg. 10.

Battle of Perryville

Following a Confederate victory at Richmond, Kentucky on August 30, Confederate forces advanced deeper into that state, seeking to drive the Federals across the Ohio River and thus establish the Confederacy's northern boundary on that waterway. A drought that summer had impacted both armies, with one soldier of the 33rd Alabama saying that: "we obtained water under deep limesinks, some of these being partly full of water, and Federals had utilized some of the partly filled sinks as a place to butcher cattle and dumped offal into them, making the water unfit to drink."The Drought That Changed the War Another soldier, from the 9th Tennessee, reported that the only water available was usually from ponds, and this was "so muddy that we could not wash our faces in it." Food supplies were also impacted by the dry weather, with Federal forces reduced first to half-rations, then to quarter-rations, then to hardtack and finally to "wormy flour". The Southerners fared little better.