15th Alabama

The 15th Alabama was formed in May 1861 from various militia units in the south east of the state.  After spending most of 1861 in training, the regiment was placed into Ewell's division in the Army of Northern Virginia, which was then transferred to Stonewall Jackson's corps.  Consequently, the regiment first saw action during the Valley Campaign of spring 1862 and particularly distinguished itself at the Battle of Cross Keys.  1862 proved to be a busy year.  The regiment participated in the Seven Day's Battles (losing a quarter of is strength at Gaines' Mill), then the Northern Virginia Campaign of August/September and Lee's Maryland Campaign (in which the regiment fought at Antietam).  In May 1863 the 15th was transferred to Longstreet's corps and formed part of a newly constituted "Alabama Brigade" under Brigadier General Evander Law.  It was in that brigade that the 15th Alabama fought what was probably it's most famous action, attacking Chamberlain's 20th Maine at Little Round Top at Gettysburg - the 15th Alabama was the regiment that Chamberlain famously counter-charged when his men's ammunition had been exhausted.  In September 1863 the 15th Alabama was transferred with the rest of Longstreet's corps to Bragg's Army of Tennessee and fought another hard battle at Chickamauga.  In May 1864 the corps returned to Virginia and remained fighting with Lee until the surrender at Appomattox. 

This unit contains many of the very first Dixon ACW figures I painted back in 1998, so the painting's a bit rough and ready.  I don't think I did much in the way of proper research into  uniforms, and so probably just used a variety of blues, browns and greys.  I'm sure ACW aficionados will be able to spot all kinds of errors.  I can't now recall why I chose an Alabama regiment - I expect it was because in those days I had grand designs about wargaming Gettysburg and so wanted to start out with the brigade that charged up Little Round Top.  I painted the two flags myself.  I did think about replacing them with more accurate GMB flags (the flags themselves are not permanently glued to the staffs), but I realised that I'm quite attached to these early efforts and so decided to keep them.  In the "Guns of Gettysburg" scenario book for Jackson's Valley Campaign, the 15th appear in 3 scenarios: Freeman's Ford (12 figures), First Winchester (20) and Cross Keys (24).

 

24 figures.  Painted July 1998 and April-June 2012.