Phillip Roddey
| Philip Dale Roddey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Nickname(s) | Defender of North Alabama |
| Born |
April 2, 1826 Moulton, Alabama |
| Died | July 20, 1897 (aged 71) London, England |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America Confederate States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 Confederate States Army
|
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |
 Brigadier General
|
| Unit |
 4th Alabama Cavalry Regiment |
| Commands held | Roddey's Cavalry Brigade |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Shiloh, Brices Cross Roads, Battle of Selma |
| Other work | Commission merchant |
Philip Dale Roddey (April 2, 1826 – July 20, 1897) was a brigadier general in the army of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
Roddey was born in Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama, to Philip and Sarah Roddey. His father, a saddler, had moved his family to Alabama from eastern Tennessee. Philip D. Roddey's birth year is usually given as 1826, which is on his tombstone. However, census records show him as several years older, and in fact his father had been shot and killed in an altercation in Moulton in 1824. Roddey's widowed mother raised her 3 children as best she could, but Roddey received little formal education. He was a tailor in Moulton before he was appointed sheriff of Lawrence County in 1846, serving at least until 1852. He then purchased a steamboat, which he ran on the Tennessee River. He married Margaret A. McGaughey and had a son and a daughter.
When the American Civil War began, Roddey, who had not supported secession, sought to remain out of it. After the fall of Fort Henry, Tennessee, to Ulysses S. Grant in February 1862, however, Union gunboats were able to sail as far as Florence, Alabama, where the shallows at Muscle Shoals stopped them. Rather than allow his steamboat to be seized and used by the enemy, Roddey burned her. He then raised a cavalry company, which he led at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.
Roddey was active with his company during the advance on Corinth, Mississippi, General Braxton Bragg writing on May 4, 1862, that "Roddey is invaluable". On August 21, 1862, Bragg – now in Chattanooga – wrote, ""A portion of our cavalry, consisting of the companies of Captains Earle, Lewis, and Roddey, led by Captain Roddey, has made another brilliant dash upon a superior force of the enemy, resulting in the capture of 123 prisoners." In October 1862, Roddey accordingly was authorized to increase his command to a regiment, the 4th Alabama Cavalry. Roddey was now a colonel. Roddey's regiment would serve under both Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joseph Wheeler, principally in Tennessee and Alabama.
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