The men of the 3rd Mississippi Infantry were a long way from home. Oystermen, fishermen and residents of coastal Mississippi, they had been swept away from the marshlands and waterways of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to fight for Southern independence on faraway fields of battle. None was bloodier than the field of fire they faced on November 30, 1864 at the Battle of Franklin. The regiment was part of Brigadier General Winfield Scott Featherstone's Brigade, in General W.W. Loring's Division of the Army of Tennessee, and joined in the disastrous Confederate assault at Franklin with the rest of General John Bell Hood's army.
"As [we] marched on down through an open field toward the rampart of blood and death, the Federal batteries began to open and mow down and gather into the garner of death as brave, and good, and pure spirits as the world ever saw," recalled a Confederate survivor of Franklin. "A sheet of fire was poured into our very faces, and for a moment we halted as if in despair, as the terrible avalanche of shot and shell laid low those brave and gallant heroes.... [The] scene was lit up by fires that seemed like hell itself.... Our troops were on one side of the breastworks, and the Federals on the other..,,"

The ground over which the men of the 3rd Mississippi had to charge at Franklin was swept by "a terribly destructive cross fire" from Federal artillery. Casualties were severe, but the regiment pressed on to the enemy parapet, where they remained until daylight. At dawn, the Mississippians and the other Southern survivors of the night s slaughter discovered that the Northern army had withdrawn. But one look at the battlefield was enough for the most hardened veteran to realize that the Battle of Franklin had been a Confederate disaster.
"When the morrow s sun began to light up the eastern sky with its rosy hues, and we looked over the battlefield, 0h, my God!" recalled an eyewitness. "What did we see! It was a grand holocaust of death.... I was never so horrified in all my life."

The 3rd Mississippi Infantry was organized in Enterprise, Mississippi in the spring of 1861, and was recruited from the population of Mississippi's Gulf Coast. "The Third Mississippi Regiment is composed largely of the fishermen, oystermen, and sailors of Louis Bay, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, etc.," observed Confederate General Lovell Mansfield.
Although initially posted to the Department of Southern Mississippi and East Louisiana, the men of the 3rd Mississippi eventually found themselves far from home as participants in some of the most ferocious fighting of the War Between the States. Several companies of the regiment were exposed to combat at Biloxi and Pass Christian in April of 1862, and the regiment was engaged at Vicksburg and at Chickasaw Bayou later that year. Assigned to Brigadier General Winfield Scott Featherstone's Brigade of General W.W. Loring's Division in 1863, the 3rd Mississippi took part in the defense of Vicksburg. The regiment was engaged at Champion Hill and the Siege of Jackson, but escaped capture when Vicksburg was surrendered to Federal forces on July 4,1863.

In the spring and summer of 1864, the regiment was active in the Atlanta Campaign. By the time Atlanta fell to Federal forces in early September, the regiment had fought in the battles of New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Ezra Church and Jonesboro. Posted on the crest of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27,1864, the 3rd Mississippi made a stubborn stand and, despite serious losses, helped hold off a series of powerful Federal attacks. On July 2,1864, while on picket duty at Kennesaw Mountain, troops from the 3rd Mississippi stubbornly defended their position, and were again acclaimed for courage in the face of the enemy. When reports of the regiment's action at Kennesaw Mountain reached Confederate officials in Richmond, the regiment was officially cited on the Confederate Roll of Honor for "gallant and meritorious conduct." The citation was read to troops on dress parade throughout the Confederate armies.
At the Battle of Peachtree Creek, the regiment endured fierce Federal fire in a charge against the enemy's works.
Among the wounded was the regiment's commander, Colonel Thomas A. Mellon. At the bloody Battle of Franklin, the regimental color-bearer distinguished himself by planting the 3rd's battle flag atop the Federal works. The color-bearer was shot down and the regiment's flag was captured. After Franklin, surviving members of the regiment were again engaged in fierce fighting at the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16,1864. After the disastrous battles of Franklin and Nashville, the 3rd Mississippi, which had once totaled almost 600 troops, was reduced to a mere 71 men.
The survivors fought General William T. Sherman's powerful army during the Carolinas Campaign of 1865, as part of the shredded ranks of the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Joseph E. Johnston. So depleted was the regiment by war's end that it had to be consolidated with two other Mississippi regiments. By the time Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina, on April 26,1865, all that was left of the 3rd Mississippi Infantry was a proud handful of its original members.