The 36th Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized at
Mount Vernon Arsenal on 12 May 1862.
Robert Hardy Smith was
colonel,
Lewis Thompson Woodruff lieutenant colonel, and
Thomas Hord Herndon major. The regiment spent a month there, and helped build defenses at Oven and Choctaw Bluffs. It was part of the garrison of
Mobile, Alabama between August 1862 and April 1863, when it was sent to
Tullahoma to join the
Army of Tennessee. At Tullahoma, the 36th Alabama was brigaded under
Henry DeLamar Clayton together with the
32nd and 58th Consolidated,
18th, and
38th Alabama Infantry Regiments. Clayton's brigade was part of
Alexander P. Stewart's division. The regiment participated in the retreat of the army during the
Tullahoma campaign and fought in the
Battle of Chickamauga, in which it lost 125 men killed and wounded. The regiment suffered light casualties at
Battle of Lookout Mountain but lost a large number in killed, wounded, and captured at the
Battle of Missionary Ridge. The regiment encamped at
Dalton with the army during the winter of 1863 to 1864. In the
Atlanta campaign, it fought in the
Battle of Rocky Face Ridge,
Battle of Resaca,
Battle of New Hope Church, the
Battle of Atlanta. The 36th Alabama lost roughly 300 men in action after departing Dalton, and at the
Battle of Jonesboro was involved in particularly heavy fighting, losing a quarter of those present. The regiment went with the army into
Middle Tennessee during the
Franklin–Nashville Campaign. It lost roughly 60 men at
Battle of Nashville but was able to survive as an organized force following the battle. The regiment and the rest of
James T. Holtzclaw's brigade was sent to Mobile to garrison
Spanish Fort. In the
Mobile campaign it lost 110 killed, wounded, and captured. Following the evacuation of Mobile, the regiment surrendered at
Meridian, Mississippi in April 1865. Since the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, where it had mustered 460 effectives, the regiment had lost 470 men and 21 officers, mostly killed and wounded. ==Commanders==