Diary

Captain J. J. Magee of the "Independent Blues" (later Company D of the Eighth Alabama Infantry Regiment) kept a small diary, documenting daily, from January 11 to February 23, 1861, the activities of his unit and company. As the Eighth Alabama wasn't mustered in until June 10, 1861, in Richmond, Virginia, many of these entries describe pranks and parties. The Blues were discharged on February 23rd and returned to Selma, Alabama. One of the last entries in the diary, dated March 21, 1861, reads "I arrived in Pensacola... at my own expense and on my own hook, looking for a fight." It is not known if Magee was part of the Eighth when in was organized at Montgomery, Alabama, in May, 1861.