James Lawrence Sheffield

He had been a store clerk, was elected County sheriff (1844-47), represented Marshall County in the State Legislature (1855-59), and owned a large plantation before the War. He was commissioned Captain, Company K, 9th Alabama Infantry in 1861. He resigned that commission then helped raise and fund - to the tune of $60,000 of his own money - the new 48th Alabama Infantry in the Spring of 1862. He was commissioned its Colonel on 22 May in Auburn, AL. He was wounded in action at Cedar Mountain, VA on 9 August 1862.

He commanded his Regiment in Maryland and may have been captured there.

He was in action with his Regiment at Gettysburg in July 1863 but was wounded again, in action at Chickamauga, GA on 19 September 1863. He continued in service at Lookout Valley, Campbell's Station, and Knoxville, TN through 1863, but was absent on furlough by 14 December. He never rejoined his command and resigned his commission on 31 May 1864.

He continued in politics with unsuccessful runs for the US Congress in 1874 and Governor of Alabama in 1882, but was elected to the Alabama State Senate in 1886.

Service from the Alabama Civil War Service Database. 1 Details from Samuel L. Webb's Two-Party Politics in the One-Party South: Alabama's Hill Country, 1874-1920 (1997) and family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture from a photograph in the portrait collection of the Guntersville Museum, Guntersville, AL.

12/05/1819; Huntsville, AL

07/02/1892; burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, AL