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Here’s the Rosetta Stone to my understanding of Joshua Taylor Kirby‘s varied Civil War military career. It’s his response to a survey of Confederate veterans the state of Alabama undertook in 1907 (and again in 1921 and 1927), now online from the FamilySearch database.

Kirby was a Private in Company K of the 2nd Mississippi Battalion in combat at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 [more about that]. The battalion gained companies to become the 48th (not 41st) Mississippi Regiment in November 1862, then Company K converted to cavalry in January 1863, as Company F, 8th Confederate Cavalry – Private Kirby’s fourth named unit.

Alfred (1808-1862) and Rachel McNeice (1812-1883) Dulaney married in 1828 in Alabama and had 10 children there and in Mississippi. Except for Henry, the oldest, who died in 1880, they all lived to 1910 or later. Here they are in 1905, probably at Pleasonton, Itawamba County, MS, in a photograph shared by family genealogist S. Lambert to the FamilySearch database in 2016.

left to right, front row, generally in birth order: Tom (1831-1917), John (1833-1910), Sibbie (1836-1914), Caroline (1841-1912), Bill (1838-1917);
back row: Gilbert (1843-1926), Alfred (1845-1918), Joseph (1850-1926), and Mary (1857-1913).

Three of the brothers – Gilbert, William, and Henry – were soldiers together in the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Battalion and later the 8th Confederate Cavalry during the Civi War. Gib and Bill were both at Sharpsburg, MD on 17 September 1862 [more here].

(touch to enlarge)

Transcription:

We the undersigned non Commissioned and Privates of Co K. 2nd Mississippi Battalion, who were in the Battles of Manassas and Sharpsburg do hereby cordially recommend our Second Senior Lieutenant Thomas C. Lipscomb for promotion. Lieutenant Lipscomb has been with us on every occasion and by his courage and good management made our company as effective as possible. As much as we regret losing Lieutenant Lipscomb, yet we feel that his services to the county entitle him to a higher position.

J. [Joseph] A. Matthews, 1st Sergt.
A. [Arthur] C. Halbert, 2 Sergt.
E.D. Beams, 2nd Corpl
L. [Lem] Joiner
J.C. Hopper
B.K. Bullock
Wm. C. Grammer
P.E. Wright
A.J. [Andrew Jackson] Whitley
P. [Peter] Ingle

[back]
J.P. [John Peter] Sartor
Wm. Cockrum
J. [John] C. Stovall
B.F. Winkle
G. [Gilbert] Dulany
W. [William] Dulany
James Strickland, Sergt.
J.T. [Joshua Taylor] Kirby
Green Littleton
R. [Robert] K. Lea

_______________

Notes

Lieutenant Lipscomb probably commanded the Battalion as the senior officer standing by the end of the day on 17 September 1862 at Sharpsburg. And he did get a promotion, to Captain of Cavalry. By late 1864 he was Colonel of the 6th Mississippi Cavalry.

Company K of the 2nd Battalion was converted to cavalry and attached as Company F to the 8th Confederate Cavalry (aka 2nd Regiment, Mississippi and Alabama Cavalry) in January 1863. Most of these men served in that unit from 1863 on.

First Sergeant Matthews, who wrote the petition, was appointed 2nd Lieutenant of Company H of the 8th Confederate Cavalry in April 1863 and was their Captain when he was killed near Columbia, SC in February 1865.

This document is among the papers of First Sergeant Matthews in his Compiled Military Service Record jacket (2nd Battalion/48th Regiment) in the National Archives; it’s online from fold3. He forwarded the petition in a letter to President Jefferson Davis of 9 November 1862.