Biographical Sketches of Commanders Related
to the 19th Alabama Infantry Regiment
at the Battle of Chickamauga

Brigadier General Zachariah Cantey Deas.1819-82

Command at Chickamauga: Deas' Brigade...19th Alabama, 22nd Alabama, 25th Alabama, 39th Alabama, 50th Alabama, 17th Alabama Battalion Sharpshooters, and Dent's Alabama Battery.

Educated in South Carolina and France, Deas was a cotton broker of immense wealth in Alabama and fought in the Mexican War. Enlisting with the Alabama Volunteers, he was J.E. Johnston's Aide de Camp and commissioned Colonel of the 22nd Alabama Infantry Regiment in the fall of 1861. He armed his regiment with Enfield rifles at a cost of $28,000 in gold and was reimbursed with Confederate bonds. At Shiloh he succeeded to brigade command and was badly wounded himself. He was with Bragg through the Kentucky campaign and was appointed Brigadier General C.S.A. on December 13, 1862. He led his brigade in battle from Chickamauga until the surrender in North Carolina in 1865.
After the war, he was in the cotton trade and owned a seat on the stock exchange in New York city.

Major General Thomas Carmichael Hindman.1828-68

Command at Chickamauga: Hindman's Division of Polk's Corp...Brigadier General Patton Anderson's Brigade (7th Mississippi, 9th Mississippi, 10th Mississippi, 41st Mississippi,44th Mississippi, 9th Mississippi Battalion Sharpshooters, and Garrity's Alabama Battery), Deas' Brigade, Brigadier General Arthur Manigault's Brigade (24th Alabama, 28th Alabama, 34th Alabama, 10th-19th South Carolina, Water's Alabama Battery).

Attended school in New Jersey and fought in the Mexican War. Hindman studied and practiced law in Arkansas where he was also elected to Congress. From a family of politicians, he "understood every angle of practical politics" and was an ardent secessionist. After being commissioned Colonel of the 2nd Arkansas Infantry, he was appointed Brigadier General on September 28, 1861. He commanded a division at Shiloh, and then headed the Trans-Mississippi Department from May 31 through July 1862. He was appointed Major General on April 18, 1862. At the Battle of Prairie Grove (Arkansas...December 7, 1862), he was unsuccessful in checking General Sam Curtis's (Federal) advance. Asking for transfer, he went to Tennessee where he commanded a division in Polk's corps and fought at Chickamauga and Chattanooga.During the Atlanta campaign he received an eye injury that disqualified him from further field service.
After the war he was a coffee grower in Mexico before returning to Arkansas. He was shot and killed on September 28,1868 by an unknown assailant.



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