"This regiment [the 22^nd Mississippi] was formed at Iuka in the summer of 1861 of companies that were early organized but had not been able to get into regiments for active service. They were required to enlist "for the war." Company E was mustered into the Confederate service at Liberty July 25, and then went to the camp at Iuka. Company D was mustered in at Corinth by Colonel Posey and sent to Iuka. Company G, after its organization, waiting vainly for orders, lost many members who joined other commands in the field; after the battle of Manassas reorganized and enlisted for the war, arrived at Iuka July 30, expecting to join the Twentieth Regiment. It being full, Captain Reid and Captain Nix went to Richmond and secured the enrollment of their commands as independent companies. September 10 they were ordered to Memphis, Tenn., where Colonel Bonham had gone with his incomplete regiment, the Twenty-second. These reminiscences illustrate the formation of the regiment."

From Dunbar Rowlands Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898.

In the "Peoples Press" of June 7, 1866 appeared an article entitled "DeSotos Dead," a brief history of the DeSoto Rebels with a list of those who died by Major Thomas C. Dockery. Thomas Covington Dockery was born in North Carolina in 1826. He is listed in the 1860 Census for DeSoto County as living near Hernando. He joined the DeSoto Rebels at their founding and stayed with the company, first as captain and then major, for a good part of the war. After the war he returned to DeSoto County where he remained until his death in 1911. He is buried in the Hernando Baptist Cemetery. His synopsis of the war service of the DeSoto Rebels is as follows:

"EDITOR OF THE PEOPLES PRESS"

Dear Sir: - Nearly five years ago, I wrote to your paper from Camp Beauregard, Ky., giving a list of the names of the boys of my company. What a sad change in the Roll of that gallant company since that time. Permit me to give through your columns, a short account of the company since that time, and the Roll of Honor or list the gallant dead.

On Christmas day of 61, we struck camp and started for Bowling Green, in Gen. J. S. Bowens Brig., Col. Bonham had died and our Regiment was commanded by Lt. Col. Schaller. We shared in the movements of Gen. A. S. Johnstons army in the evacuation of Bowling Green, and the march southward to the battle of Shiloh.

We first met the enemy in that terrible battle and right nobly did company F deport itself during the two days battle. Several of Capt. Nesbits company joined us during the fight, Maj. J. C. Thompson, was wounded in my company, and a gallant Alabamian whose name I did not get joined us and was killed my company lost heavily in killed and wounded. Our brave Regiment was complimented by Gen. Bowen, for its conduct, and ever afterwards was a favorite with him who several times selected it to fill positions of danger and responsibility, and company F, stood high in the Regiment. We fought in Col. Stathams Brigade, Breckenridges Division.

From Shiloh we moved with the main army to Corinth and Tupelo but was there separated from General Braggs army, and sent to Abbeville, our Brigade doing the first work there. From that point we went to Vicksburg, where we remained during the first summers bombardment.

From Vicksburg we moved to Baton Rouge and my company and Regiment acted a conspicuous part in that fierce little battle. The Regiment was especially complimented by Col. Smith, commanding Bridgade and by General Breckenridge Captain Hughes, commanding regiment, was killed. M. C. Meagher, of my company, was recommended to the War Department, by Gen. Breckenridge, for promotion for gallantry in action, and was subsequently commissioned 1^st Lieutenant. Three flag bearers had been shot down and the Ensign was a special mark for the enemy, but Mike voluntarily seized the flag and boldly bore it to the front, using his Rifle at the same time.

A few days after the battle we moved one dark and stormy night to Port Hudson, and commenced the works of that place under General Ruggles.-- From that point we moved northward stopped a few days at Davis Mills, & on the 3d and 4^th of Oct. were engaged in the bloody battle of Corinth, in Lovells Division. The 22d Regt. was sent forward to support a battalion of sharpshooters, before any engagement had taken place numbering but 380 rank and file, under Col. Lester, we charged the works in our front, and captured them, driving off five Regts of Federals, who left a splendid gun "the Lady Richardson" in our hands, and their ditches filled with dead.-- Company F was amonst the foremost in the assault, and acquitted itself admirably, we were in constant action the two days. On the second morning I was seriously wounded and disabled from service, was promoted, and Lieut. D. T. Oliver, was made captain of the company.

From Corinth, the company moved to Holly Springs, from thence to Grenada, when it was placed in General Featherstons Brigade, Lorings Division, where it remained during the war sharing all the hard fortunes of that part of the army, in the Deer Creek expedition, the Bakers Creek fight, the bombardment of Jackson, the retreat to Newton Station and back again to Canton. Thence retreating before Sherman, to Demopolis, from thence to Gen. Johnstons army in Georgia serving gallantly in that campaign till the fall of Atlanta, there under Hood, to Nashville, and back again to North Carolina.

This noble company numbering 102 when organized at Cold Water Depot on the 27^th July 1861, and subsequent additions bringing the list up to 139 returned home a mere handful a large majority having died in Hospitals, on the battlefield or disabled from service and honorably discharged, and a few were transferred to other companies.-- This was the first company from DeSoto that volunteered for 3 years or the war and nobly did those gallant volunteers deport themselves, in the manly struggle for our rights and our liberties.

The original officers of the company were Capt. C. G. Nelms a brave, liberal and patriotic soldier, who loved not war, but entered the army from a sense of duty to his country, and fell a martyr to the cause. Soon after the organization of the company, he was made Major of the Regiment by appointment of the President, and at the flash of the first gun of the enemy at our Regiment at Shiloh, he fell wounded through both knees, and died one week afterward. I was 1^st Lieutenant, made Captain, when Maj. Nelms was promoted. D. T. Oliver, was 2d Lieut. made Captain, when I was promoted. Captain Oliver fell upon the breastworks, leading his company in that awful charge at Franklin, Tenn., shot through the head and now fills a patriotic soldiers grave. D. C. Lauderdale was 3d Lieut., a braver man was not in the Confederate army. He was wounded in the bowels during a charge upon the enemy the second day of the battle of Shiloh, and left in the hands of the enemy, he must have died that day. To fill vacancies, A. W. Huddleston, T. H. W. Wall, W. H. Hancock and W. G. Caruthers were made Lieutenants.

List of the Dead

Justice to these patriots demands an individual notice from me but the list speaks for itself. They were good soldiers in every sense of the word, and if standing by the grave of either, I could truly say here lies a brave and gallant soldier, who died not a hireling, but Volunteer for his countrys independence. A marble monument should be erected to the memory of DeSotos fallen braves, and I trust we shall ere long see a tall shaft in Hernando, bearing the names o all our Martyred Heroes.

Respectfully yours,

T. C. DOCKERY"

MEMBERS OF CO. F, 22^ND MISSISSIPPI INFANTRY

The following list is taken from the Compiled Service Records listing on the National Park Services Civil War Soldiers and Sailors site, with obvious duplication deleted.