The "Farmer Guards”, Company I, 12th Regiment Louisiana Infantry Raised in Union Parish Louisiana Submitted by: R. Hugh Simmons Date of Submission: 02/03/2010 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ========================================================================================== ========================================================================================== The following narrative about Union Parish’s Company I, 12th Louisiana Infantry is provided by regimental historian R. Hugh Simmons who created and maintains a website dedicated to the 12th Louisiana Infantry. A roster of the Farmer Guards [Company I] compiled by the author from the Compiled Military Service Records is presented on the website. All of this material was researched and copyrighted by the author. See: www.rhsresearch.org/12LAINF.htm ========================================================================================== ========================================================================================== ========================================================================================== ========================================================================================== The "Farmer Guards”, Company I, 12th Regiment Louisiana Infantry Raised in Union Parish Louisiana ========================================================================================== ========================================================================================== The Farmer Guards were recruited in Union Parish and arrived at Camp Moore in July 1861. Charles W. Hodge was elected Captain at Camp Moore and served in this capacity for six months. He resigned in January 1862, presumably due to ill health, and returned to Union Parish. Later that spring he organized another company which became Company G of the 31st Louisiana Infantry. Elisha Sellers, enrolled at Camp Moore as the senior 2nd Lieutenant, was appointed Captain over the head of 1st Lieutenant John E. Woodward to replace Hodge. The 12th Louisiana Infantry was organized at Camp Moore as a twelve month volunteer regiment. The terms of the Confederate Conscription Act passed on April 16, 1862 required that veteran volunteers already in the field be re-enlisted to serve for three years or the duration of the war. The entire regiment was re-enrolled and re-organized at Camp Green near Fort Pillow, Tennessee on May 10, 1862. Officers and non-commissioned officers were re-elected and company designations changed. Enrolled at Camp Moore as Company C, the Farmer Guards became Company I at Camp Green. Elisha Sellers was not elected Captain at the May 10th re-organization and agreed to return to his position as 2nd Lieutenant. First Lieutenant John E. Woodward was elected Captain and served as such until his resignation at Port Hudson on March 7, 1863 due to poor health. John W. McBride enrolled as company 1st Sergeant at Camp Moore and was elected 1st Lieutenant on May 10th, 1862. McBride was promoted to Captain replacing Woodward and led the company for the next 18 months. Elisha Sellers then took McBride’s place as 1st Lieutenant. In April 1863, the Farmer Guards and the Claiborne Rangers were detached from the 12th Louisiana Infantry and temporarily mounted to serve as cavalry. The Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana had been depleted of cavalry to support General Bragg's 1862 expedition into Kentucky. When General Ulysses S. Grant sent Colonel Grierson on his raid down through Mississippi to Newton Station and on to Baton Rouge, members of the Farmer Guards were involved in the pursuit. Captain John W. McBride who led the company during the heavy fighting in 1863 and 1864 was wounded in the arm by shell fire at Franklin, Tennessee on November 30, 1864 ending his active military service. 1st Lieutenant Elisha Sellers was detailed to provost duty in May 1864. In August he was sent with Lieutenant Colonel T. C. Standifer home to Louisiana to collect the large number of absentees from the 12th Louisiana regiment at home and return them to duty. 1st Lieutenant Edward Z. Bussey, 2nd Lieutenant Joseph Pipes, Corporal Nelson R. Williams and 8 privates were accounted for as present for duty at the final surrender in North Carolina on April 26, 1865. Bussey signed the final roster as 1st Lieutenant, commanding the company. Other members of the company were present in North Carolina in hospitals and on detached duty with logistics units. R. Hugh Simmons Regimental Historian 12th Louisiana Infantry E-mail: HeyHugh@rhsresearch.org Website: www.rhsresearch.org/12LAINF.htm ########################################################################################## File posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/union/military/coi12lainf.txt