when the city fell, but soon exchanged, after which he was made a
brigadier general. His command was engaged in the battle of Missionary
Ridge, and was with Johnston in the series of conflicts which extended
from Dalton to Atlanta and Jonesboro. When Hood was appointed to succeed
Johnston, the brigade of General Pettus was with the army throughout that
disastrous campaign, and no command of the army was more hotly engaged
than was his brigade. It was he who forced the passage of Duck River,
forming his men in squads in the face of a galling fire from the rifle
pits of the enemy, and succeeded in driving him from his entrenchments
with the bayonet.
On the retreat of Hood from Nashville the duty of protecting the rear of
the army was imposed on the brigade of General Pettus. With intrepid and
dogged courage, he held the enemy in check at many points, and perhaps
more than any other, saved the army of Hood from utter destruction. His
last service was in North Carolina, where his command was engaged in the
battles of Kingston and Bentonville, General Pettus being severely wounded
in the latter.
The war being over, General Pettus entered again into the practice of law
in Selma. He shared in the struggles incident to the era of
reconstruction, during the entire period of which he rendered the most
faithful service at great personal sacrifice, declining meanwhile any
public recognition of his services by official position. His long
experience and native skill placed him in the first rank of practice in
the Alabama courts, and often his patience was taxed in the courts
presided over by the incompetent judges who occupied the bench during the
dark period of reconstruction. Among the judges of that time was the
notorious J. Q. Smith, as conspicuous for his lack of knowledge of the law
as he was for his impudence and presumption. On one occasion there was a
ruling of this incompetent official which was so foreign and far-fetched
as to evoke from General Pettus the daring remark that in a practice of
many years, and as a presiding judge himself at one time, he had never
heard of such a ruling. With a complacent and self-satisfactory air the
ignorant man on the bench moved himself with greatly assumed composure and
replied: "Ah! General Pettus, you have a great many things to learn yet!"
Sharing in all the momentous movements in the political history of the
state in the period of rehabilitation following the reconstruction,
General Pettus would not consent to accept public office till 1897, when
he was chosen a United States senator from Alabama. In this capacity he
served till his death, in 1905, he and Senator Morgan dying within a few
months of each other, leaving vacant senatorial representation for Alabama
in the highest branch of congress.
ALPHEUS BAKER
The mention of the name of General Alpheus Baker to those who knew him,
revives the memory of flashing wit, inimitable mimicry of which he was a
master, fascinating conversation, captivating manners and a cavalier
bearing, all of which were characteristic of this gallant soldier. The
educational advantages of General Baker, while not scant, were those
afforded only beneath the parental roof. The father of General Baker was a
native of Massachusetts, removed to the South in the early years of the
nineteenth century and settled in South Carolina. The father was eminent
for his ripeness of scholarship, and his proficiency as a teacher of youth
was of the first order. Schooled under the tutelage of a parent like this,
young Baker was himself fitted to teach by the time he was sixteen years
old. His teaching served to make more compact his education, for, after
all, with the real teacher, the question is which learns the more, the
teacher or pupil?
While still a young man Alpheus Baker had won distinction as an instructor
in the cultured circles of Abbeville Court House, then one of the most
elegant little centers in the South. He enjoyed a similar distinction at
Lumpkin, Ga., whence he came as a teacher across the Chattahoochee River
to Eufaula, in 1848. He was connected with the military school at
Glennville, in Barbour County, then one of the most noted military schools
of that grade in the entire South. Meanwhile he was engaged in the private
study of the law, for the practice of which he applied for license at
Eufaula in 1849, when he had just attained his majority. He brought to his
profession a fund of ripened wisdom supported by a thorough education and,
for one so young, a seasoned experience in the ways of the world. Young in
years, he was in experience old. Bright, vivacious and exceedingly genial
in disposition and bearing, he was not lacking in a sense of
self-assertion and manliness, an indispensable adjunct to success. His
manner was popular and he soon became a favorite in the cultured circles
of the little city of his adoption.
Long given to close and exacting study and the mastery of principles, Mr.
Baker made rapid strides in the profession of his choice. His habits of
promptness, diligence of application, and painstaking care in the
management of cases entrusted to him, won him much general and favorable
comment not only, but procured for him multitudes of clients and a
lucrative practice. In the sixth year of his professional life at the bar,
he returned at one term of the circuit court as many as one hundred and
five cases.
In the year 1836, when the question of slavery had become a fierce one,
and when Kansas, struggling to statehood, became a battle-ground between
the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery forces of the country, Major Buford
of Eufaula, insisted that by swelling the forces in favor of slavery in
the territory now aspiring to statehood, thus making Kansas a slave state,
would avert bloodshed. Acting on this suggestion, Major Buford removed to
Kansas, and Mr. Baker accompanied him. As is well known, the effort
failed, and the Eufaulians returned to await the consummation of "the
irrepressible conflict." In 1861 Mr. Baker was chosen one of the Barbour
County delegates to the state constitutional convention, in which capacity
he was serving when Governor Moore accepted the Eufaula Rifles as a part
of the quota of volunteers called for to resist the encroachments of the
enemy on Pensacola.
Baker was chosen the captain of this company, and, resigning his seat in
the convention, he proceeded with his command to Pensacola, which at that
time promised to be the opening scene of the war. The dashing young
officer had as privates in the ranks of his company such men as James L.
Pugh, E. C. Bullock, S. H. Dent, Sr., Thomas J. Judge, Prof. William
Parker of the University of Alabama, and Prof. Thornton of Howard College,
at Marion.
In the following fall of 1861, Captain Baker became the colonel of a
regiment composed of Alabamians, Mississippians and Tennesseans, and was
ordered to Fort Pillow, which was destined later to become a scene of one
of the tragedies of the Civil War. Early in 1862 the regiment was captured
at Island Number Ten. He remained in prison for a period of five months,
when, on being exchanged, he was made the colonel of the Fifty-fourth
Regiment of Alabama Volunteers and shared in a number of battles, among
which was that at Fort Pemberton and Baker's Creek, in which last named
conflict Colonel Baker received a severe wound. In March, 1864, he was
made a brigadier general, and participated in the series of battles
extending from the northern part of Georgia to Atlanta. His brigade
rendered splendid service in the Carolinas during the declining days of
the war. The war being over, General Baker returned to Eufaula, where he
resided till his death.
He was a man of rare parts. Jovial in disposition, he was a universal
social favorite. A scholar, he found congenial companionship among the
learned. A painter and musician, he was at home with the lovers of art.
But he is chiefly remembered as an orator. On the stump before a popular
audience, in the court room, and on commencement occasions, General Baker
was perfectly at home. Diversified, as we have seen, in his gifts, he was
equally diversified in his oratory. By the witchery of his oratory he
could entertain, amuse, arouse and charm an assemblage. His gift of
elocution was superb, and the play of his imagination in speaking,
rhapsodical. He was a master of assemblies. He would sway the multitude as
does the wind a field of grain. The flash of wit, the power of captivating
imagery, the rouse of passion--all these were his to a pre-eminent degree.
Back of these lay a pleasing presence and charming manner. The people
heard him gladly.
GEORGE P. HARRISON
In a recent work, the title of which, "Social Life of Virginia in the
Seventeenth Century," is presented the history of the original families of
repute which emigrated from England to the Old Dominion, among the names
of which appears that of Harrison. From this family have come two
Presidents of the United States, as well as other distinguished citizens
in different states of the Union. General George Paul Harrison of Opelika
is a descendant of that original Virginia stock which was so conspicuous
in laying the foundation stones of the state on the shores of which landed
the first English colony. The name of Harrison is found mentioned in many
of the southern and western states.
General George Paul Harrison, the subject of the present sketch, was born
on the "Montieth Plantation," near Savannah, Ga., March 19, 1841, and
bears his father's name in full. The father was for many years prominent
in Georgia politics, serving many sessions in the legislature of that
state from Chatham County, and during the late war between the states,
commanding a brigade of state troops. After the war, the elder Harrison
was chosen a member of the constitutional convention of Georgia, aiding
materially in framing a constitution adjusted to the new order incident to
the close of the war.
Our present distinguished citizen, General George P. Harrison, was
classically trained in the famous academies for which Savannah was noted
before the period of hostilities, the chief of which schools were the
Monteith and Effingham academies. From those advanced studies in his
native city, he went to the Georgia Military Institute at Marietta, from
which he was graduated in 1861 with the degrees of A.B. and C. E. as the
first honor man of his class. He was scarcely twenty at the outbreak of
the war, and in January, 1861, he shared in the seizure by the state of
Georgia, of Fort Pulaski, which was taken possession of on January 3,
1861. With his course at Marietta still uncompleted, Mr. Harrison enrolled
in the service of the state and was commissioned a second lieutenant in
the First Regiment of Georgia Regulars. In the spring of that eventful
year, while yet war was undeclared, he was detailed by Governor Joseph E.
Brown, Georgia's "war governor," as commandant of the Marietta Military
Institute, where he was enabled to prosecute his course to completion.
Rejoining the First Georgia Regulars, he became its adjutant and went with
the command to Virginia. He participated in the earliest fighting of the
war, was with his regiment at the affair at Langley's farm, and in other
brushes with the enemy. In the winter of '61 and '62 he was commissioned
the colonel of the Fifth Georgia Regiment of State Troops and was assigned
to the protection of the coast of the state for six months, when the
regiment was reorganized for regular service in the Confederate army, with
the retention of Colonel Harrison as its commander, his command now
becoming the Thirty-second Regiment of Georgia Infantry. The regiment was
assigned to service at Charleston, where it remained until near the close
of the struggle. Though still ranking as colonel, Harrison was in command
of a brigade about fifteen months during the years '63-'64. The three
brigade commanders, Generals Hagood, Colquitt and Colonel Harrison,
commanded, by turn, on Morris Island, during the large part of the siege
of Charleston. When the assault was made on Fort Wagner on July 22, 1863,
Colonel Harrison was speedily sent to reinforce the garrison, and arrived
in the nick of time, saved the fort and put to flight the assailants. In a
contest of several days on John's Island he was in complete command of the
Confederate forces, and here he won distinction by his coolness, courage,
and strategic ability. After the final fall of Wagner, Colonel Harrison
was assigned to a separate command, with headquarters at Mount Pleasant, a
part of his command still garrisoning Fort Sumter, over which the
Confederate colors floated till February, 1865.
During a period of 1864, Colonel Harrison was in command at Florence, S.
C., where he built a stockade for twenty-five thousand federal prisoners,
who were so humanely cared for by the young commander, as to excite the
attention of General Sherman, who, when he captured Savannah, ascertained
where the Harrison home was, as the family was now residing in that city,
and issued a general order to his troops respecting its special
protection.
In 1864 the brigade which Colonel Harrison commanded was sent, together
with that of General Colquitt's, to turn back the invasion of the federal
General Seymour, in Florida, the object of Seymour being to isolate
Florida from the rest of the Confederacy. Colonel Harrison shared in the
honors won by General Colquitt in the decisive battle at Olustee, and was
at once commissioned a brigadier, being, it is said, the youngest general
in the army. He was not quite twenty-three years old when he received his
commission as a brigadier general. His brigade became a part of Walthall's
division, Stewart's corps.
On the retirement of the Confederates before Sherman into the Carolinas,
the task was assigned to General Harrison of covering the retreat of
Hardee. General Harrison shared in the closing scenes of the drama in the
Carolinas, was twice wounded, and once had a horse killed under him. He
had just passed his twenty-fourth birthday when his command surrendered at
Greensboro, N. C.
While in camp General Harrison applied himself to the study of the law as
his prospective profession, to the practice of which he was admitted soon
after the close of hostilities. Removing to Alabama, he located first at
Auburn, and later removed to Opelika, where he has since resided. Elected
commandant at the Alabama University, he accepted, after first declining
the position, after retiring from which he was made commandant at the
state agricultural college, as it was then called, at Auburn. After a year
of service there he abandoned all else and devoted himself to his
practice.
His service for the public was soon in demand, and in 1875 he was chosen a
member of the constitutional convention of Alabama, serving in the same
capacity, in his adopted state, in which his honored father was serving at
the same time in Georgia. Then followed his election to the state senate,
in 1880, he becoming the president of that body in '82, serving two years.
In '92 he was chosen a delegate to the national Democratic convention, and
in '94 was chosen to fill the unexpired term in congress of the Honorable
W. C. Oates, who had become governor, the district indicating at the same
time his choice to succeed himself two years later.
As a distinguished Mason, General Harrison is the chairman of the
committee on Masonic jurisprudence of the grand lodge of Alabama. The
United Confederate Veterans have shown their appreciation of General
Harrison by choosing him in twelve successive elections as major general
of the Alabama division. In 1912 he was chosen, at Macon, Ga., lieutenant
general of the army of Tennessee department, which position he now holds.
A man now of seventy-two, he resides at Opelika, as the chief counsel of
the Western of Alabama Railroad.
CHARLES M. SHELLEY
For solid worth, substantial and enduring results, and patriotic service,
no Alabamian enrolled among the worthies of the state excelled General
Charles Miller Shelley. He was built for service, and was endowed with an
energy practically boundless and unconquerable. Denied the boon of an
education, excepting to a limited degree, he appropriated readily examples
and suggestions, built them into practical force, which he wielded with
apt execution as a soldier, citizen, and patriot. The statement of these
qualities furnishes an outline of the character of this worthy citizen and
brave soldier.
Seized by the enthusiasm which possessed so many of the Alabama youth when
first the cloud of war flecked the national horizon, Mr. Shelley joined
himself to a military company which went of its own will to Fort Morgan
before the war had actually begun. The forts and ports along the seaboard
of the South were supposed, at that time, to afford the first theater of
the coming conflict. These volunteers eventually returned home, a more
thorough organization was effected, and in the company formed at
Talladega, Shelley became the captain. This company was one of the
original Fifth Alabama Regiment, of which the brilliant Rodes was the
first colonel.
For a period Captain Shelley served at Pensacola, till the regiment was
ordered to Virginia. As a part of Ewell's brigade the regiment was in
close proximity to Manassas Junction, and had a sharp brush with the
enemy at Farr's Cross Road, but did not share in the first battle of
Manassas.
At the close of the first term of service of enlistment, Captain Shelley
resigned as captain, returned to Alabama and raised another regiment, of
which he became the colonel. This was the Thirtieth Regiment of Alabama
Volunteers, which regiment was assigned to duty in the western army, where
it won great distinction for its fighting qualities. In the memorable
campaign of 1862, in Tennessee and Kentucky, Colonel Shelley's regiment
shared throughout. Subsequently the regiment was transferred to
Mississippi and attached to Tracey's brigade, which saw hard service at
Port Gibson. The first hard fight on the field in which the Thirtieth
Alabama Regiment shared was at Baker's Creek, or Champion Hills, where
Colonel Shelley received special mention at the hands of General Stephen
D. Lee, the hero of that battle. Later still, the regiment was at
Vicksburg and shared in the result of that ill-fated city.
In the series of conflicts in northern Georgia and in all the fighting
between that region and Atlanta, and on to Jonesboro, the Thirtieth
Alabama Regiment was conspicuous. At Jonesboro, Ga., Colonel Shelley was
placed in command of a brigade, which position he held for a few weeks,
when he was placed at the head of Cantey's brigade and given a commission
as a brigadier. He was with Hood on the return march into Tennessee, and
in the ill-starred battle of Franklin his brigade was a heavy sufferer,
having lost six hundred and seventy men out of a total of eleven hundred
whom he led into the fight. By an adroit movement at Franklin, General
Shelley saved from capture the entire corps of General Stewart, for which
skill and gallantry he received special mention at the hands of General
Hood. It is a matter of record that but for the generalship shown by
Shelley at Franklin, that battle would have been far more disastrous in
its results. He came out of the fight with little more than four hundred
men in his brigade, half of which number was captured at Nashville.
After these convulsions in Tennessee, contemporaneous with the onward
march of Sherman to the sea, thence into North Carolina, where General
Joseph E. Johnston was restored to his command, now a fragment of its
former self, General Shelley was assigned to duty there. All the twelve
Alabama regiments belonging to the army were thrown together into one
brigade in North Carolina, and placed under the command of General
Shelley. The surrender of Johnston's army resulted in the return of
General Shelley to Selma as a paroled soldier.
In the resistance against the encroachments of a dominant force during the
direful days of reconstruction, no man in Alabama rendered more patriotic
service than Charles M. Shelley. At different times, during the succeeding
years, General Shelley was made the campaign manager of the Democratic
party in the state, contending often against subtle odds, and to his
resourcefulness of leadership was the party largely indebted in its
gradual emergence from the throes with which it was afflicted for years.
During the closing years of his life General Shelley became one of the
most noted leaders of the Democratic party in Alabama. During the first
administration of Mr. Cleveland, he served by presidential appointment as
the third auditor of the United States treasury. He was a candidate for
the governorship in the campaign which resulted in the election of Hon.
William J. Samford. General Shelley died in Birmingham on January 20,
1907.
In a brief review like this, scant justice to the worth of so eminent a
man as General Shelley was, both as a soldier and a citizen, is given.
Much of his service is hastily passed over, and if at all alluded to, it
is in a most generalized manner. The salient facts of his eventful life
are barely more than touched, but even from so short a recital of his
services, certain unquestioned facts fix his fame.
General Shelley was an intrepid soldier whose pluck in the face of danger
was unusual. So far as opportunity was afforded for the exercise of
independent action in the tactics of war, he displayed rare qualities of
skill as a commander. He met all exigencies without shrinking, and
invariably bore his part with the heroism of the genuine soldier that he
was. Nor was he less inclined to assume the obligations imposed in later
struggles for Democratic supremacy in Alabama. Not a few who rose to
political distinction in the state were indebted to the means afforded by
the diligent work of General Shelley. The service rendered by him is a
part of the state's history during the last half century. In certain
instances where junctures arose, it is doubtful that any other could have
met them with equal efficiency. No strained eulogism is needed to tell the
story of his valiant service--the unvarnished facts are sufficient.
Energy, diligence, resourcefulness, courage and a perennial optimism were
the qualities displayed by General Shelley in the long service rendered by
him to the state of Alabama.
HENRY D. CLAYTON
General Clayton served the state in a variety of capacities. In the
legislature, he was one of its most alert and active members as chairman
of one of the important committees; as a Confederate commander, he was
courageous and skillful; as a circuit judge, he was ranked among the
ablest in the state, and as president of the state university he rendered
his last service with signal satisfaction.
He was educated at Emory and Henry College, from which institution he was
graduated in 1848, and for distinguished scholarship bore away from the
college the Robertson Prize Medal. He lost no time after the completion of
his collegiate course, for a year later he was admitted to the bar, and
entered at once on a successful and lucrative practice. The first eight
years of his life were rigidly devoted to the law, and though recognized
as one of the ablest of the young lawyers of the state, and one of the
most popular, he could not be persuaded to enter on public life.
In 1857, however, he was chosen without opposition to be a representative
to the legislature from Barbour County, and again in 1859 he was elected.
Mr. Clayton was chairman of the committee on the military in 1861, when
Governor Moore called for twelve months' volunteers to go to Pensacola,
which was considered to be to the enemy a vulnerable point. At that time,
Mr. Clayton was the colonel of the Third regiment of the Alabama volunteer
corps, and in response to the appeal of Governor Moore, the services of
this regiment were tendered. But as only two regiments were called for,
Governor Moore's desire was that they should come from different parts of
the state. However, two companies of Colonel Clayton's regiment were
accepted and mustered into service.