THE LAST ROLL by Dr. Robert H. Peel

[The following article is excerpted from Confederate Veteran Magazine, Volume 10 (1902), Page 367]

Dr. Robert H. Peel writes from Holly Springs, Miss.:

Adjutant Albert Peel, son of Volney Peel, Sr., was reared in Marshall County, Miss. When the war between the States began he was a student at the Kentucky Military Institute, and was seventeen years of age. When his native State seceded from the Union he left the institute, hurried home, and enlisted for the war. His company became part of the Nineteenth Regiment. It was commanded by Col Kit Mott, of Holly Springs, Miss., and Lieut. Col. L. Q. C. Lamar, afterwards United States Senator. In May, 1861, the Regiment was sent to Richmond, Va., and camped on the old fair grounds, where young Peel was employed as drill master, and, although a mere boy, he won the confidence and esteem of every soldier of the regiment. He was by the side of Col. Mott when he was killed, at Williamsburg, Va., and then with Col. L. Q. C. Lamar, who succeeded to the command of the regiment. Adjutant Peel was in every battle fought by his command in Virginia from Williamsburg to Spotsylvania.

Gen. N. H. Harris, of Vicksburg, Miss., who commanded the Nineteenth after Col. Lamar resigned, was then a brigadier in command of four Mississippi regiments, and with others was ordered by Gen. Lee to recapture and to hold this angle of breastworks, which had fallen into the hands of the enemy the preceding night. This was one of the most desperate battles of the Civil War, and has ever been so considered by both Federal and Confederates who took part in it. [NPS Site]

Adjutant Peel had thrown aside his sword and with a very fine rifle, captured from the enemy, he was shooting as rapidly as he could reload. He fell, shot through the head at the foot of an oak tree which had been cut down by deadly missiles. His body was found by his brother, Dr. R. H. Peel, who was then surgeon of the regiment, and it was buried after dark. The stump of this oak tree at the root of which Adjutant Peel fell measured at the time Twenty-two inches in diameter, and is now among the war relics in the museum at Washington City. We buried Adjutant Peel's body beside his colonel, the gallant T. J. Hardin, who was also killed in the battle.

Two or three years after the close of the war those noble women of Spotsylvania wrote to me that the graves of Col. Hardin and Adjutant Peel had been found and the remains removed to the Confederate cemetery. God bless those noble Southern women, and the grand old State of Virginia, and her ever-loyal people! Four years spent with them during the war has endeared them to me forever.

There were five brothers and four cousins of Adjutant Peel engaged in the Civil War, of whom six were killed and wounded and one imprisoned at Fort Delaware. When the army reached Petersberg there was but one of these Peels known to be living, through the one who was in prison was released after the surrender, and the youngest brother (Volney Peel) who was with Forrest's Cavalry, recovered from his wounds, and is still living. I have a photograph that was taken at the commencement of the war. It shows the uniform worn by company I., Nineteenth Mississippi troops before being mustered into service. Albert Peel's rank was first lieutenant and adjutant of the Nineteenth Mississippi Regiment, C. S. A.

SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, Volume 10 (1902), Page 367.

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