15th Regiment Alabama Infantry

15th Alabama Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Flag of Alabama in 1861 (obverse and reverse)
Active	July 3, 1861 – April 9, 1865
Country	Confederate States of America
Branch	Confederate States Army
Role	Infantry
Equipment	Mississippi Rifles (Co's A-B); altered smooth-bore "George Law" muskets (Co's C-L). Later issued Enfield and Springfield rifle-muskets.
Engagements	Valley Campaign Malvern Hill Second Manassas Antietam Fredericksburg Gettysburg Chickamauga Knoxville Campaign The Wilderness Spotsylvania Court House Cold Harbor Siege of Petersburg Appomattox Campaign
Commanders
Notable commanders	James Cantey William C. Oates Alexander Lowther Francis Key Schaff Robert C. Norris

The 15th Regiment of Alabama Infantry was a Confederate volunteer infantry unit from the state of Alabama during the American Civil War. Recruited from six counties in the southeastern part of the state, it fought mostly with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, though it also saw brief service with Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee in late 1863 before returning to Virginia in early 1864 for the duration of the war. Out of 1958 men listed on the regimental rolls throughout the conflict, 261 are known to have fallen in battle, with sources listing an additional 416 deaths due to disease. 218 were captured (46 died), 66 deserted and 61 were transferred or discharged. By the end of the war, only 170 men remained to be paroled.

The 15th Alabama is most famous for being the regiment that confronted the 20th Maine on Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Despite several ferocious assaults, the 15th Alabama was ultimately unable to dislodge the Union troops, and was eventually forced to retreat in the face of a desperate bayonet charge led by the 20th Maine's commander, Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain. This assault was recreated in Ronald F. Maxwell's 1993 film Gettysburg.

The 15th Alabama was organized by James Cantey, a planter originally from South Carolina, who was residing in Russell County, Alabama, at the outset of the Civil War. "Cantey's Rifles" formed at Ft. Mitchell, on the Chattahoochee River, in May 1861. Cantey's company was joined by ten other militia companies, all of which were sworn into state service by governor Andrew B. Moore on July 3, 1861, with Cantey as Regimental Commander.