To Fight and Die for Dixie: Alabama’s Manpower Contribution to the Confederate War Effort, 1861–1865

Private Henry B. Wood of the 12th Alabama Infantry explained in a letter home to his father why he was fighting: “I am in for the war; I have shouldered my musket, and it must not be thrown down ... until the nations of the earth, including the proud boasting North, shall confess that we are not rebels; but a nation of freemen, who know our rights, and knowing dare maintain them.” Setting aside the relative merits of the Confederate cause, Wood’s statement exemplifies the patriotic nature of Alabama’s soldiery during the Civil War, even as it anticipates the future motto of the state. Essentially, Henry Wood fought and died for Dixie. He was part of Alabama’s mass mobilization on behalf of the Confederacy’s bid for independence, a veritable levée en masse that pulled virtually the entirety of Alabama’s manhood into a cause that left a great many of them dead, and all of them scarred, before it ultimately failed. Unfortunately, the historical record has never satisfactorily established just how many Alabamians like Private Wood served and how many of them like Private Wood died. Getting these numbers exactly right may not be necessary when evaluating Alabama’s overall role in the Civil War, but given