Shooting 4 Men For Desertion
posted July 4, 2009
Following the Civil War, efforts were made to collect information pertaining to the war for permanent archive records. Captain Wilson Parks Howell, leader of Company I, 25th Alabama Regiment, of Cleburne County, Al., was chosen to write a history of his regiment which he did and brilliantly so.
Captain Howell was a prominent Methodist minister and a most respected politician who helped formulate the 1901 Alabama Constitution and a charter for the city of Anniston. He also served in the Alabama legislature and was a surveyor for his county. He was the father of 10 children, was born in 1832 and died in 1911. He was the brother of my great-great-grandmother, Malinda Howell Grubbs.
Following is a tragic portion of what he wrote in his history of the Twenty-Fifth Alabama Regiment not too long before he died.
Shooting Four Men For Desertion
“It might not be out of place just here to give a brief account of the military execution of four unfortunate men. As already stated, after the army had fallen back to Dalton, Ga. and in camp there in the winter of 1863-64, four men of the Brigade who had the previous fall been sentenced to death by court martial for desertion were brought back to be executed.
via 7/4/2009 – Shooting 4 Men For Desertion – Opinion – Chattanoogan.com.
