Delta Kappa Epsilon - University of Alabama

Sighs of Psi 7 1862, and, after participating in the Confederate Kentucky campaign of October 1862, the Legion spent much of the next year stationed back at Cumberland Gap, near the junction of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. On August 9, 1863, Hilliard's Legion joined the concentration of forces that ultimately fought at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia in September 1863. At Chickamauga, a hard-won Confederate victory, Stallworth and his 1st Battalion went into combat with 239 men, and lost 169 killed or wounded, a 70% casualty rate; Brother Stallworth was himself one of the wounded. In a subsequent letter recommending him for promotion to Major dated March 9, 1864, Stallworth's commanding officer wrote: "Captain Stallworth is a superior officer and was conspicuous for skill and valor at the battle of Chickamauga, in which battle he was severely wounded." The promotion was granted. 2 After Chickamauga, Hilliard's Legion was broken up and the individual units comprising it were re-organized into three separate new units. Stallworth's Company F and two other companies of the old 1st Battalion became the 23rd Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters, with Stallworth in command. This battalion was thus also known as "Stallworth's Sharpshooters." 3 Stallworth's Sharpshooters then moved to Virginia and joined the Army of Northern Virginia, reaching Richmond in April 1864. The battalion fought at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia, in May 1864, where it lost heavily. William E. Broughton, a first cousin of the wife of Nicholas Stallworth, who succeeded Stallworth as Captain of Company F upon the latter's promotion to Major, died of wounds sustained in the fighting at Drewry's Bluff on May 14. 4 The battalion was afterward active in the frequent skirmishes and battles in the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, during the final months of the war. As part of Brigadier General Archibald Gracie's brigade, they helped successfully defend a portion of Lee's defensive line known as "Gracie's Salient" throughout the entire long siege of Petersburg (see photo). Fighting was almost constant at Gracie's Salient in the final months of the war. After Union forces succeeded in breaking through Lee's defensive lines in early April 1865, and the Confederate withdrawal towards Appomattox began, many of Stallworth's Sharpshooters became casualties at the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865, when about one fifth of the remaining retreating Army of Northern Virginia was killed, wounded or captured. This was the last major engagement between the armies of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant before the capitulation of Lee's army at Appomattox Court House three days later. At the surrender, all that remained of Stallworth's Sharpshooters were Major Stallworth, three other officers and 43 enlisted men. Any Confederate soldier who survived and persevered at his post through the end of the war in Virginia, after being severely wounded, and endured the months-long fighting and extreme deprivation of the siege of Petersburg and the disastrous Battle of Sailor's Creek, and remained present for duty at the time of the final surrender, deserves to be honored on that basis alone. The Parole issued by the Federal government to Major Stallworth after the surrender, which marked the end of his military service and allowed him to return home, is thus like a diploma certifying him for membership for all time in the pantheon of great Confederate heroes. The Psi Chapter therefor hereby salutes Major Nicholas Stallworth for his gallant and heroic military service. After the war, Brother Stallworth returned home to Evergreen, Alabama, where he served as Mayor and Justice of the Peace from 1870-1874. He eventually moved to Falls County, Texas, where he served as Justice of the Peace and Tax Assessor beginning in 1885. 5 He died there on February 28, 1909, ten days shy of his 72nd birthday, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Marlin, Texas (see above photo). 6 Nicholas Stallworth is a cousin of Brother Agee Stallworth Broughton III, Psi 1980. Agee is also the great-great-grandson of William E. Broughton, mentioned above, who was married to Nicholas Stallworth's first cousin, and who died from combat wounds sustained at Drury's Bluff in May 1864, after succeeding Stallworth as Captain of Company F of Stallworth's illustrious battalion. Agee was also one of several Psi alumni involved in early efforts to identify the Psi DKE who is the subject of the Battlefield marker at Gracie's Salient at Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia, where Stallworth's Sharpshooters were stationed during much of the last year of the war. (Photo courtesy of stonesentinel.com) 1865 photo of interior of Gracie's Salient, Petersburg battlefield, where Nicholas Stallworth lived and fought in the final months of the war. Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. Interior of Gracie's Salient. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ items/510d47dd-e7f6-a3d9- e040-e00a18064a99 Excerpt from Nicholas Stallworth's Confederate service record, showing he was present for duty at the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox of April 9, 1865. National Archives and Records Administration, courtesy of Fold3.com. 2 Confederate Service Record for Nicholas Stallworth, National Archives and Records Administration, accessed via Fold3.com. 3 The information about Hilliard's Legion and the 23rd Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters in this article is widely available on the Internet. 4 Information from Agee Stallworth Broughton III and from the Confederate Service Record for William E. Broughton, National Archives and Records Administration, accessed via Fold3.com. 5 1890 DKE Catalogue, page 351. 6 Find A Grave Memorial # 28304587; http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/ fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28304587 Nicholas Stallworth's tombstone in Calvary Cemetery, Marlin, Texas. Find A Grave Memorial # 28304587; http://www.findagrave.com (Continued on page 8)

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