Initially organized as the 6th Mississippi Infantry Battalion, additional companies were added to bring the battalion up to regimental strength in March, 1862, and the unit was redesignated as the 31st Infantry Regiment. The 6th battalion was organized by
Jehu Amaziah Orr, a delegate to both the
Mississippi Secession Convention and
Provisional Confederate Congress who was then elected colonel of the new regiment. The regiment entered service as the Confederates were evacuating the North Mississippi railroad junction at
Corinth, and joined the forces concentrating at
Vicksburg along the Mississippi river. Under General
Benjamin Hardin Helm, the 31st took part in the unsuccessful attempt to
recapture Baton Rouge in August, 1862, losing 16 killed and 31 wounded. The regiment took part in various movements through Mississippi in 1862, was assigned to General
Winfield S. Featherston's brigade, and then fought at the
Battle of Champion Hill in May 1863 as General
Ulysses S. Grant's Union troops closed in on the vital strongpoint of Vicksburg.
Denis Buckley, a Union soldier of the
136th New York who was subsequently killed at Peachtree Creek, captured the regimental colors of the 31st Mississippi during the battle and was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions. During the subsequent
Franklin–Nashville campaign, the 31st fought at the
Battle of Decatur in October, 1864, taking further casualties, and the
Battle of Franklin, where the regiment lost another 45 killed and 100 wounded during bloody assaults on the Federal lines. Colonel Stephens, commanding the regiment, was severely wounded at Franklin and briefly captured by Union troops. The regiment fought at the
Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, and then acted as rearguard while the Confederates began to retreat. By the end of 1864, the regiment only had 93 men left, less than the size of a regular infantry
company. In the spring of 1865, the remnants of the 31st Mississippi took part in the
Carolinas Campaign, fighting at
Kinston and
Bentonville. The 31st was consolidated with the
3rd, 33rd, and 40th Mississippi regiments on April 9, and the Confederate forces in North Carolina surrendered on April 26, 1865. ==Commanders==