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Sketch of the Twelfth Alabama Infantry.
While a student, in the last term of the Junior class, in what is now the Polytechnic College at Auburn, Ala., in May, 1861, I learned from my brother, Dr. J. F. Park of Tuskegee, that the last company which the Secretary of War would accept for a period of twelve months was being organized in that city. In response to this information I bade farewell to my college-mates and Professors and hurrying to Tuskegee, succeeded in having my name enrolled as one of the ‘Macon Confederates.’ A week afterward about a dozen more Auburn College boys joined the same company.The officers of the company were, Hon. R. F. Ligon, State Senator, Captain, Prof. R. H. Keeling, First Lieut. Prof. W. D. Zuber, Second Lieut., Captain George Jones, Third Lieut.
After going to Greenville, Ga., and bidding my mother and sisters good-bye, I joined the company at La Grange, as it passed there on its way to Richmond, reaching that city on the 10th of June. On the 12th day of June, 1861, the company was sworn into service for a period of twelve months. For several days the company was drilled regularly by our accomplished First Lieut., who was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and who had served as Adjutant of the First Virginia Regiment during the Mexican War.
We were detained at Richmond waiting for other companies, with the expectation of forming a regiment of ten Alabama companies. During our stay we had a visit from President Davis, who rode into camp and witnessed our company drill. He expressed his approval of the company and was very gracious and courteous to the officers, who held a brief conversation with him.
