The Twelfth Alabama Infantry, Confederate States Army.
By Robert E. Park, Late Captain Company E, 12th Alabama.
[This compilation toward a sketch of the history of this gallant regiment, its organization, associations, engagements, casualties, etc., consists of extracts from the War Diary of Robert Emory Park, late Captain of Company ‘F,’ with other materials contributed and collected by him. A portion of the War and Prison Diary covering the period January 27, 1864, June 15, 1865, appeared as a serial in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vols. I, II, III, (1876-7), at the request of the former Secretary of the Society, Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., who in prefatory note commends ‘its value in that it records the daily experience of the men who followed our distinguished leaders, and gives the impressions made upon the mind of an intelligent young soldier as he discharged his daily duty.’ An earlier portion of the Diary, January, 1863, January 27, 1864, with account of the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Warrenton, Bristow Station, Mine Run, the march into Maryland and Pennsylvania, and reminiscences of the battle of Seven Pines, etc., appeared in Vol. XXVI. Its preservation was fortuitous, having been lost on the field of battle. It was returned in a somewhat mutilated condition in 1888 by Mrs Vine Smith, of Lebanon, N. H., to Capt. Park. The prime value of contemporaneous record is indisputable, but the ingenuous Diary of this devoted and conscientious young soldier is in its convincing verity as the instantaneous photograph of passing events. Capt. Park has proven himself in maturer years as progressive, public-spirited and successful as a citizen as he was gallant and faithful as a soldier. He was called to the responsible trust of Treasurer of the State of Georgia in October, 1900, and will doubtless retain it by general acclaim whilst he lives. The reverential spirit abides with him. He is an active participant in the Reunions of Confederate Veterans, [194] and in that held in Macon, Ga., Nov. 9th, 1905, his presence was signal in its inspiring influence. He introduced a series of resolutions urging the Legislature of Georgia to make a liberal appropriation ‘as one of the original thirteen States’ to be properly represented at the Ter-centenary Celebration in May, 1907, of the first permanent settlement of the Anglo-Saxon race in America, at Jamestown. He witnessed also the laying of the corner stone at Macon, Ga., of the first monument to the women of the South, who embody all of feminine virtue and blessing. He is also vice-president of the John B. Gordon Monument Association. Nor is the zeal of Mrs. Park to be less regarded. She is continuously re-elected the Regent for the State of Georgia of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, whose inestimable treasures are preserved in what was the White House of the Confederacy in this city, the whilom residence of President Jefferson Davis. Mrs. Park is the daughter of the late Dr. George R. and Cornelia (Paine) Hendree, formerly of Richmond, Virginia. Mrs. Hendree, who died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Park, January 6th, 1906, in the 84th year of her age, was the daughter of the late Edward Courtenay and Caroline Matilda (Brinton) Paine. The father a distinguished lawyer, born in Baltimore, Md., having moved to the South, impressed himself by his abilities in a long life, and was revered as the Nestor of the Georgia bar. Mrs. Hendree was the mother of three daughters and an only son: Mrs. Park, Mrs. Georgia Hendree Burton, the wife of Right Rev'd Lewis William Burton, D. D., for years the beloved rector of the appealing St. John's Church, Richmond, Va., and the first Bishop of the Diocese, of Lexington, Ky., which was organized in January, 1896, and of Mrs. Harrison, the wife of Col. Z. D. Harrison, the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Georgia. The son, Edward Paine Hendree, a gallant youth, fell at the age of 19 years in the sanguinary battle of the Wilderness, Va., May 5th, 1864, in the command of the company from Macon county, Ala., 61st Alabama Infantry, C. S. A. It is to be hoped that the continuous efforts of Capt. Park will eventuate in the publication of a history of the 12th Alabama adequate to its deserts as so nobly attested.—R. A. Brock, Ed.][195]
