Chapter 12:
- Mississippi commands without the State, 1864— Atlanta campaign — Nashville campaign -- eastern Virginia campaign — Shenandoah Valley campaign.
During the active military operations of 1864, the greater part of the military strength of Mississippi had been drawn to the army under Johnston and later under Hood. When General Polk went into north Georgia, where his life was soon to be sacrificed for the cause of the Confederacy, he took with him the Mississippi infantry which had served theretofore in the defense of the State, and they, added to the brigades which had fought under Bragg, formed a considerable part of the army which wrestled bloodily with Sherman all the way from Dalton to Atlanta in the summer of 1864.
In the organization of Johnston's army of Tennessee, Anderson's and Walthall's Mississippi brigades were assigned to Gen. T. C. Hindman's division of John B. Hood's corps. Anderson's brigade, commanded by Brig.-Gen. Wm. F. Tucker, and later by Col. Jacob H. Sharp, included the Seventh Mississippi infantry, Col. Wm. H. Bishop; Ninth, Lieut.-Col. Benjamin F. Johns; Tenth, Lieut.-Col. George B. Myers; Forty-first, Col. J. Byrd Williams; Forty-fourth, Lieut.-Col. R. G. Kelsey; Ninth battalion sharpshooters, Maj. William C. Richards. General Walthall's brigade was made up of the remnants of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-seventh regiments, consolidated under Col. R. P. McKelvaine, the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth under Col. William F. Brantly, and the Thirty-fourth under Col. Samuel Benton.
