General Notes

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James Erwin Spradley, Private, enlisted October 30, 1863, Greenville. "He
was listed on the regimental medical register while in Mobile on March
21, 1864, with rubeola (a). Two days later he was transferred to the
general hospital at Greenville. He was diagnosed with pneumonia on April
20, 1864, and moved to the general hospital the next day. On July 4, he
was wounded in the right leg during the siege of Atlanta. He was listed
as a farmer and 18 years old. On July 28, he was suffering from acute
diarrhea. On August 3, the diagnosis was feb int tert (b). He was
diagnosed with acute diarrhea on September 21 and transferred to the
general hospital two days later." (1) "He was at the surrender April 26,
1865, at Greensboro, North Carolina." (2)
(1)  Register of Sick and Wounded of the 17th Alabama Volunteers 1907.
National Archives, Washington, D. C., filed as Chapter VIII, Volume 5,
handwritten journal.
(2) "Confederate Veterans Reunion" Greenville Advocate, Greenville, AL.
March 10, 1897.
(a) Rubeola: An acute, usually an infectious, disease, either measles or
German measles.
(b) feb int tert: An intermittent fever that occurs every three day,
probably malaria.
Note: All the above was gleaned from Illene D. Thompson and Wilbur E.
Thompson, The Seventeenth Alabama Infantry: A Regimental History and
Roster (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books Inc., 2001).
"Last Saturday evening about 8 o'clock Mr. J. E. Spradley of Patsburg was
crushed to death by the train.  Mr. Spradley had gone over to the
postoffice for his mail, and having obtained it, he, in the company with
Mr. Ham, started for home. Just as they were crossing the switch they
discovered the train near them & moving with considerable speed. Mr. Ham
remarked that they would have to cross hurriedly and leaping from the
track, barely made his escape while Mr. Spradley was struck by the rear
car and crushed beneath its merciless wheels and he died within an hour
after the accident. Deceased was buried at Live Oak last Sunday evening
attended by a large crowd of relatives and friends. He leaves a wife and
one child, a son to whom he was a kind and affectionate husband and
father." (1)
(1) Rutledge Wave, June 21, 1893.
He has an evenly four-sided headstone that comes to a point at the top.
Train wheels are inscribed on all four sides of the headstone.
The 17th Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized at Montgomery in August,
1861. In November, it moved to Pensacola and was present at the
bombardment there that month and again in January. In March 1862, the
regiment was sent to western Tennessee where it was brigaded under J. K.
Jackson of Georgia, with the 18th, 21st, and 24th Alabama regiments. The
unit fought at Shiloh and
lost 125 k and w. A month later, it was in the fight at Framington,
withfew casualties. In the autumn, when Gen'l Braxton Bragg moved into
Kentucky, the 17th, weakened by illness, was left at Mobile. It was there
drilled as heavy artillery and had charge of eight batteries on the shore
of the bay. It remained at that post until March 1864 when it was ordered
to Rome, GA. The brigade consisted of the 17th and 29th Alabama
regiments, and the 1st and 26th Alabama and 37th Mississippi regiments
were soon after added. The brigade was commanded at different times by
Gen'l Cantey of Russell, Col. Murphey of Montgomery, Col. O'Neal of
Lauderdale, and Gen'l Shelley of Talladega. The
regiment was engaged at the Oostenaula bridge and in the three days'
battle of Resaca, with severe loss. The 17th had its full share of the
campaigning from Dalton to Jonesboro, fighting almost daily, especially
at Cassville, New Hope, Kennesaw, Lost Mountain, and Atlanta. In the
battle of Peachtree Creek, it lost 130 k and w, and on the 28th of July,
180 k and w. The entire loss from Resaca to Lovejoy's Station was 586,
but few of whom were captured. The regiment moved int