"We are not soldiers; we are just playing soldiers," complained a member of the 3rd Alabama Volunteer Regiment in the spring of 1862. The unit was composed of state volunteer militia companies (some dated back to 1836) that was organized as the 3rd Alabama in April, 1861. It was the first regiment from its state to leave for Virginia. Assigned to garrison duty at Norfolk, the 1,000 men remained idle there for a year. Their good appearance attracted notice and to their embarrassment, they were called a "bandbox" regiment.

Finally, on June 1, 1862, at the battle of Seven Pines, the 3rd Alabama received its baptism of fire -- actually a baptism of death. The regiment was the first to charge; its commander Colonel Tennent Lomax was shot dead and the troops floundered about leaderless. In the chaos, 175 of the Alabamans were killed or wounded. One month later, 207 members of the regiment lay dead on the slopes of Malvern Hill. The storm of Federal artillery fire was so intense that the 3rd lost six color bearers and suffered casualties amounting to more than half the regiment. Even so, the men of the 3rd got within 200 yards of the Federal defenses, farther than any other Confederate units got.

A month of being real soldiers -- including the bloody Seven Days battles -- had reduced the regiment to only 180 men fit for duty. The unit was filled with new recruits and after reorganization, it continued to fight in the Army of Northern Virginia as a part of the renowned Alabama brigade commanded by General Robert E. Rodes.

The men of the 3rd also served as part of Stonewall Jackson's "foot cavalry" and one of them recorded that "a walk of twenty or thirty miles a day is a very small affair." They invaded Maryland and fought at Sharpsburg. On May 2, 1863, they marched around the flank of the Union army at Chancellorsville and participated in the crushing attack that won the South its greatest victory.

On July 1, 1863, the 3rd was temporarily attached to General Stephen Ramsur's brigade, and helped drive the Union army through the streets of Gettysburg.

In 1864, the regiment fought in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, and starved and froze in the Petersburg trenches. In April, 1864, the 40 remaining members surrendered at Appomattox. Among the survivors were members of Company A, the "Mobile Cadets", an old militia company that had its roots in a social club for wealthy young gentlemen. Observers early in the war dubbed them "the millionaires" for their fancy dress and expensive habits. Their baggage, wrote one man, "was more than was carried by a division of Lee's army three years later."

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