Matthew D. Ector was appointed Brigadier General 23 Aug 1862, and led his brigade in McCown's division at Richmond KY and Stones River. In the latter battle at the end of 1862, Ector's brigade, serving as infantry, included the 10th, 11th, 14th, and 15th Texas Cavalry Regiments. His brigade was subsequently assigned to Maj. Gen. W.H.T. Walker's division. Aug 24, 1863 the 29th NC Infy joined the brigade. Gen. Walker having been named commander of the Reserve Corps, Brig. Gen. States Rights Gist was in command of the still named Walker's division when that corps was sent to reinforce Gen. Bragg's Army of Tennessee. Walker's corps crossed to the west bank of Chickamauga Creek, and the two brigades of Gist's division were heavily engaged in the first clash on the morning of Sept. 19, 1863 at the battle of Chickamauga.
Sept 22 the brigade was transferred back to Gen. Johnston's army in Mississippi and assigned to the division commanded by Maj. Gen. Samuel G. French(1) in Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk's Corps of the Army of Mississippi.
From Sept. 1863 they remained in Mississippi until May 1864, when Polk's Corps joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's defense of Atlanta. At that time, Gen. Ector's brigade included the 29th and 39th NC Infantry Regts, and 4 Texas regimets, the 9th, 10th, 14th, and 32nd, of which the last 3 were discribed as dismounted cavalry. A recent book(2) describes the action around Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864. On June 14, Lt. Gen. Polk was killed by a cannon ball, and Maj. Gen. William W. Loring took temporary command of the Corps. On July 4, Loring's Corps, on the right of the Confederate line near Smyrna, bore the brunt of an attack by the Federals. The 29th was actively engaged and lost 2 men killed, 8 wounded, and 27 missing.(3) On July 7th, command of Loring's Corps was assumed by Lt. Gen Alexander Stewart.
On July 17, Gen Johnston was replaced in command of the Army of Tennessee by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood, who launched a costly and unsuccessful counterattack. During the Battle of Peachtree Creek on July 20 the 29th Regiment lost 28 men missing(3) and the 39th lost 15 men killed, wounded, and missing.(4) On July 27 the brigade was detached to reinforce Walthall's division at Ezra Church, 2 miles west of Atlanta. Gen. Ector was wounded, and replaced as brigade commander by Col. Willim H. Young of the 9th Texas Infy, who was appointed Brig. Gen.
On Aug 26, Stewart's Corps was left to hold Atlanta, while Gen. Hood took the other two corps 15 miles southwest to Jonesboro, to unsuccessfully try to prevent encirclement by Sherman's forces. After a 2 day battle, they retreated to Lovejoy's Station, where they were joined by Stewart's corps and Gen. Hood, who evacuated Atlanta Sept 1, 1864. French's division acted as the rear guard. During the defense of Atlanta, the 29th NC lost 1 man killed, 20 wounded, and 4 missing.(3)
After a standoff, Gen. Hood maneuvered his army to strike Federal supply lines. On Oct 5, French's division attacked Allatoona. Gen. Young was wounded and captured, and replaced as brigade commander by Col. Coleman of the 39th NC. Maj. E. H. Hampton reported the 29th NC's part in the battle in the Official Records.(5)
During the following months Gen. Hood's army advanced into Tennessee. At some time Gen. Ector, recovered, resumed command of the brigade. The 29th and 39th Regiments, assigned to guard the pontoon train, missed the bloody Battle of Franklin. Gen. Hood moved his army into a defensive position outside of Nashville. Gen. French having taken a leave of absence, his depleted division was merged into that of Maj. Gen. Walthall, remaining in Stewart's corps. On Dec 15, Gen. Thomas launched an attack by his Federal army upon Stewart's position. Ector's brigade first assisted in the defense of Hillsboro Pike, but withdrew after the Federals broke through Walthall's fortifications. Hood's beaten army retreated toward Franklin. Gen. Stewart wrote that the brigade's conduct during the battle was "characterized by the usual intrepidity of this small but firm and reliable body of men."(6)
After the retreat fron Tennessee, they participated in the defense of Mobile, Alabama, under the overall command of Maj. Gen. Dabney H. Maury. Stationed in Spanish Fort, backed against the Apalachee River at the head of Mobile Bay, they endured its siege April 2-8, 1865. Ector's brigade, one of three, held the left of the line.(7) Federal troops, led by the 8th Iowa, gained a lodgment on the right, and during the night of April 8-9, the defenders withdrew over a treadway bridge to Battery Tracy, with a reported loss of about 500 prisoners. The Confederate commander of the garrison, Brig. Gen. R. L. Gibson, reported 93 men killed, 395 wounded, and 250 missing.(8) Gen. Maury withdrew his men from Mobile before the 12th to Meridian, Mississippi, where the department commander, Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, on hearing of the surrender by Gen. Johnston of the last army on the east coast, surrendered his forces May 4, 1865.
2. Baumgartner, Richard A., Kennesaw Mountain June 1864 (Huntington, WV: Blue Acorn Press, 1998).
3. Jordan, Weymouth T. Jr., comp., unit histories by Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 A Roster, Vol.VIII Infantry 27th - 31st Regiments (Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, 1981), p. 233-234.
4. Jordan, Weymouth T. Jr., comp., unit histories by Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 A Roster, Vol. X Infantry 38th - 39th and 42nd - 44th Regiments (Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, 1985), p. 107-108.
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7. Irwin, Richard B., "Land Operations Against Mobile," in
8. Boatner, Mark M. III,