1st Alabama Volunteer Infantry

The 1st Alabama Volunteer Infantry was a military unit organized in 1898 for service to the United States in the Spanish-American War.

The Birmingham Battalion mustered at Union Station on May 1 and traveled via the Louisville & Nashville Railroad to Mobile.

The unit returned to Birmingham on the L & N from Jacksonville, Florida on September 17. Mayor Frank Evans chaired a reception committee that organized their public welcome. Among the crowd were Civil War veterans representing Camp Hardee and Camp Davis of the United Confederate Veterans and Camp Thomas of the Grand Army of the Republic. The ladies on the committee organized a pot-luck of home cooked foods to accompany the returning soldiers to their encampment.

After arriving at Union Station each battalion paraded around Block 99, then boarded East Lake Railroad cars to East Lake to retrieve their personal belongings from freight cars taken there and make camp before being discharged. A group of physicians assembled to take charge of the sick and wounded.

After their return, Higdon was presented with a silver berry bowl with gold inlay by his grateful enlisted men.

Companies

• 1st Alabama Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel E. L. Higdon
  • Birmingham Battalion, commanded by Major T. O. Smith
    • Company A: Woodlawn Light Infantry
    • Company G: Jefferson Volunteers
    • Company K: Birmingham Rifles
    • Company L: Huey Guards
  • Second Battalion, commanded by Major D. D. McLeod
    • Company C: Etowah Rifles
    • Company E: Joe Johnston Rifles (Decatur)
    • Company H: Bessemer Rifles
    • Company I: Oxford Guards
  • Third Battalion, commanded by Major O. Kyle
    • Company B: Wheeler Rifles (Florence)
    • Company D: Anniston Rifles
    • Company F: Huntsville Rifles
    • Company M: Clark Rifles (Pratt City and Talladega)

References

• "Gray Veterans and Pretty Girls" (September 17, 1898) The Birmingham Age-Herald, p. 5