IN HIS OWN WORDS
			BRIGADIER GENERAL ALEXANDER WILLIAM CAMPBELL
		My name is General Alexander W. Campbell.  I was born on June 4, 1828, in Nashville, Tennessee.  The eldest of ten children of John W. and Jane Campbell.  My father was an attorney there, but in 1833 an event came about which was to bring an major change to the Campbell family.  The state of Tennessee chartered the Union Bank to do business in the state, and at this time men with banking experience were hard to find.  As my father had at the age of 19 been placed in charge of a bank in his home state of Kentucky, he was soon persuaded to give up the practice of law and become the head cashier of the first bank in Jackson, the Union Banking Company.  In Noverber of 1833, he brought the family to the little town of Jackson, where I was raised and was educated at the Jackson Male Academy and the West Tennessee College.  In 1847 and 48, I studied law under Judge Totten of Jackson, and later attened law school in Lebanon, Tennessee, where I received my law degree in 1851.  The followig year I opened a law practice in Jackson, soon after marrying Anne Allen, daughter of one of Nashville's most prominent attorneys.   In 1854, I was appointed to the post of U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.  A post I held for the next 6 years.  I also served during the late 1850's as the Jackson City Recorder.  However by 1860 the prospects of war had become very strong, and I enlisted as a private in the Independent Guards, a Jackson militia unit.  My stay there was brief, as I was soon named by Governor Isham G. Harris to the position of Assistant Inspector General of the Provisional Army of Tennessee.  Very shortly the provisional army was inducted into the army of the Confederate States of America, where I was named Colonel of the 33rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment under the command of General B.F. Cheatham.  My regiment was heavily engaged at the Battle of Shiloh, where I was twice wounded and had my horse shot out from under me.  My younger brother John was killed there.  Still I managed to keep the field with my brave men until we were relieved.  Later I also saw action at the battles of Perryville, Ky. and Murfreesboro, Tn.  In 1863, I was detailed by General Bragg to West Tennessee to recruit calvalry troups, but while there I was captured by Union troops and sent to Johnson's Island, Il. where I spent a year as a Prisoner of War.  After being exchanged, I was promoted to Brigadier General and placed under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, where I remained until the surrender.
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