Wilcox County's Mathews Rangers served as special cavalry escorts during the Civil War

Major General Thomas C. Hindman

Tomorrow – Nov. 19 – marks 159 years since one of the most storied military units in Wilcox County history left home to take part in the War Between the States.

According to “Men of Wilcox: They Wore the Gray” by Ouida Starr Woodson, it was on Nov. 19 in 1861 that the Mathews Rangers departed by steamboat from Providence Landing in Wilcox County to enter military service in Mobile. The unit was formed earlier that month and had elected James Boykin to serve as the unit’s captain. After about three months of service at Mobile, Boykin resigned and was replaced by Capt. Augustine Tomlinson.

According to the unit’s official muster roll, other members of the unit included First Sgt. Fred Cooper, Second Sgt. G.R. Mason, Third Sgt. Wash Nettles and Fourth Sgt. John Finnegan. Privates on the roll included A.J. Bigger, Junious Cook, J.T. Dale, I.A. Felts, Josh Grace, Thorn Hickey, William Kennedy, Robert Longmire, Watson Miller, Ervin Newell, Pat O’Marrow, David Packer, A.E. Rivers, Josiah J. Stuart, William West, J.A. Young and others. No doubt many of their descendants still live in Wilcox County today.

As the war ramped up in February 1862, the unit was sent from Mobile to fight at Corinth, Mississippi. After squaring off against future U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Shiloh two months later, the Mathew Rangers became Co. I of the 3^rd Alabama Cavalry Regiment. In addition to Wilcox County, other men in this regiment came from Monroe, Dallas, Autauga, Calhoun, Choctaw, Mobile and Perry counties.

As evidence of their prowess in the saddle, the men of Wilcox County in Co. I were assigned to serve as special escort for Major General Jones Mitchell Withers, who was later replaced by Major General Thomas C. Hindman after the Battle of Perryville in October 1862. For the next year and a half of the war, these cavalrymen from Wilcox County served as Hindman’s special escort, that is, until May 1864 when they requested to rejoin their old regiment, the war-ravaged 3^rd Alabama Cavalry.

As part of the Army of Tennessee, they took part in the Atlanta campaigns, the unsuccessful defense of Savannah, Georgia against Union General William T. Sherman and fighting at Aiken, Bentonville, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville and Raleigh in North Carolina. When the Army of Tennessee surrendered in April 1865, only a few members of the original Mathews Rangers remained alive. Among the dead was Capt. Augustine Tomlinson.

Like so many men during the Civil War, the 36-year-old Tomlinson was brought down not by bullets or cannonballs, but by sickness. Tomlinson became ill not long after the Mathews Rangers arrived in Corinth. He eventually died on June 2, 1862, and records reflect that he was buried in the historic Camden Cemetery.

Henry R. Gordon, who is also buried in the Camden Cemetery, was captain of Co. I when the unit officially surrendered in 1865. Gordon lived to the age of 48 before passing away in 1881. His grave bares the simple inscription of “God Is Love.”

In the end, if you’d like to read more about the Mathews Rangers and other Civil War units from Wilcox County, I highly recommend that you find a copy of Woodson’s “Men of Wilcox: They Wore the Gray.” Also let me hear from you if you have any additional information about the Mathews Rangers and their exploits. No doubt I have only scratched the surface of their wartime experiences, and it would be of value to fill in the gaps of the unit’s unique history.