Algernon Sidney Reaves

(1839 - 1926)
Home State: Alabama
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 13th Alabama Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
From Randolph County, Alabama, he left Bowden College (GA) and was elected Lieutenant of a company raised by Captain James Aiken (later Major, Lt Colonel, Colonel of the 13th), soon Company D, at Montgomery in July 1861.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He's listed in some sources as Major at Sharpsburg, but was Captain, Company D. He succeded to command of the Regiment after both Colonell Fry and Lt Colonel Betts were wounded in action on 17 September. Reaves was himself reported wounded at Sharpsburg.

The remainder of the War:
He was Captain, and still in command of the Regiment at Chancellorsville, but may after have been appointed Major. "At Gettysburg, in Archer's Brigade, he led his regiment [presumably after Col. Fry's wounding] in the famous Pickett's charge, which resulted in the loss of four-fifths of his men. He himself was severely wounded both at Gettysburg and Sharpsburg (Antietam), and in the Wilderness was captured and kept a prisoner until the close of the war."
(from Hill)

After the War:
After being in the 'mercantile' business in Alabama, in 1868 he moved to Hartsville, Tennessee, where he bought the Hart family farm and married Mittle Hart. In 1898 he was appointed Colonel of the 3rd US Volunteer Infantry for the Spanish-American War, and saw occupation duty in Santiago, Cuba until discharged in December 1898. He moved to Oklahoma and was one of the founders of the city of Lawton in 1901.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Sources: Guinn, J.M.K., Randolph County, Alabama, Sixty-Two Years Ago, 1894-1896 - transcribed by the WPA, at Birmingham, Alabama in 1937; posted online on RootsWeb by Joe Dickson;
genealogy data posted by Connie Craig on RootsWeb; and
Hill, Luther B., A History Of The State Of Oklahoma, Illustrated, Volume II, p. 134-135, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908 - transcribed by (?) and hosted online by webmaster Pam Mardos Rietsch on USGenNet.

Birth Date: 6/26/1839 Place of Birth: Wedowee, AL
Death Date: 3/17/1926 Death Place: Denver, CO Burial Place: Hartsville, TN

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