Company I, ‘Southern Foresters,’ Mobile county.
Captain Wm. T. Walthall, John J. Nicholson, E. H. Jones.First Lieutenans John J. Nicholson, L. Walthall, afterwards Quarter Master for a short time.
Second Lieutenants E. H. Jones, J. O. Patton.
This Company was organized in June, 1861, left Mobile for the front July 4th, 1861.
First Lieutenant Nicholson became captain in May, 1862, on the resignation of Capt. Walthall. The latter was an accomplished teacher and scholar, and for a long time connected as editor with the Mobile Register. He assisted President Jefferson Davis in the preparation of his wonderful book, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Confederate States.’
This company was composed largely of young men who were employed around the wharves of Mobile and connected with the steamships and boating. They had a peculiar uniform of dark gray with blue trimmings.
Bruce R. Davis, of this company, was for some time the sergeant major of the regiment and a very bright man, who wrote a very beautiful hand.
Among the privates of the company was Edward W. Pettus, who bore the same name as the present United States Senator [210] from Alabama, General E. W. Pettus. I have no record of what became of him.
Lieutenant J. O. Patton was a native of Portland, Me., and a very gallant soldier and officer. He had the Down Easter brogue, and, later on, I will mention an incident in his career at the battle of Chickahominy.
Porter L. Myers went out as the Third Corporal of Company I, and was killed by my side, while we were fighting Hatch's Pennsylvania Bucktails on South Mountain. A very extended mention of this incident is given under the head of the ‘Battle of Boonesboro.’
