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Confederate (CSV)

Sergeant

James Madison Tate

(1837 - 1921)

Home State: Alabama

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 3rd Alabama Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

He enlisted in Tuskegee as 2nd Corporal of Company C, 3rd Alabama Infantry on 27 April 1861 and was First Corporal by October. He was promoted to 5th Sergeant on 1 June 1862 and 4th Sergeant on 23 June.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in action near Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was appointed First Sergeant in January and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 26 May 1863. He was seriously wounded at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 12 May 1864 and was furloughed home to Tuskegee by the end of June. He was unable to return to the regiment, but formed a company of cavalry in Alabama and had service in skirmishing with Wilson's raiders.

After the War

He was a lawyer, methodist preacher, and school teacher. By 1870 he was teaching in Franklin, Macon County, AL, but moved to Florida and founded Roberts High School in Escambia County, FL in 1878. He taught there until he retired 35 years later in 1913. When the new high school was built in 1917, it was named for him.

References & notes

His service from the State of Alabama1 and his Compiled Service Records (CSRs) at the US National Archives via fold3. His wounding on South Mountain from a casualty list for Rodes' Brigade in the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser of 8 October 1862, as I.M. Tate. His cavalry service in Alabama from additional research by artist and author of an upcoming novel of the Third Alabama, Booth Malone [his 3rd Alabama Infantry Regiment blog]. Personal details from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Sarah Elizabeth Clark (1846-1916) in January 1867 in Tuskegee, AL and they had two daughters, Sarah and Mollie.

More on the Web

J.M. Tate High School has grown somewhat since 1917, but is still operating (2020) in Escambia County.

Birth

12/29/1837; Girard, AL

Death

11/06/1921; Pensacola, FL; burial in Roberts Cemetery, Pensacola, FL

Notes

1   State of Alabama, Dept. of Archives & History, Alabama Civil War Service Database, Published 2004, first accessed 01 January 2010, <https://archives.alabama.gov/research/CivilWarService.aspx>, Source page: /civilwar/soldier.cfm?id=198924, etc.  [AotW citation 25579]