1st Choctaw Battalion Mississippi Cavalry
(from Dunbar Rowland’s "Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898"; company listing courtesy of H. Grady Howell’s "For Dixie Land, I’ll Take My Stand’)
Company A -- Capt. Ben Duckworth’s Company (county of origin not specified)
Company B -- Capt. J.W. Moore’s Company (county of origin not specified)
Major -- J. W. Pearce.
On duty in Gen. John Adams' district, headquarters Jackson, February, 1863, and April, Maj. J. W. Pearce commanding.
About 200 Choctaw braves enlisted in the Confederate service early in 1863, under the command of Major Pearce, and soon afterward were in an engagement with Union soldiers at Tangipahoe, La., with disastrous results. Many of the Indians and several of the white officers were captured and some of the Indians were taken North and put on exhibition. This put an end to the battalion as an organization, which was formally disbanded May 9, 1863, but a transfer was made to Spann's Battalion of independent scouts, as dismounted scouts.
[Transcriber’s Note: Regretably, no further information on either the 1st Choctaw Battalion or Spann’s Battalion can be found in Rowland’s masterwork of MS Confederate History.]
Do you have an ancestor in this unit? If so, contact the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for his service record. Then contact us for a membership application.
