Phillip Roddey

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Philip Dale Roddey (April 2, 1826 – July 20, 1897) was a Confederate brigadier general who led the 4th Alabama Cavalry and later Roddey’s Cavalry Brigade during the American Civil War. Born in Moulton, Alabama, to Philip and Sarah Roddey, he grew up with little formal schooling after his father, a saddler, was killed in 1824. He worked as a tailor, served as sheriff of Lawrence County starting in 1846, and then ran a steamboat on the Tennessee River. He married Margaret A. McGaughey and had a son and a daughter.

At the start of the Civil War, Roddey did not support secession but soon raised a cavalry company and fought at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. He impressed General Braxton Bragg and was promoted to colonel of the 4th Alabama Cavalry in October 1862. His unit, serving with Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joseph Wheeler, grew to include more regiments and a Georgia gun battery. He eventually became the commander of the District of Northern Alabama and was promoted to brigadier general, leading a cavalry brigade that fought mainly in North Alabama. Because his men were often armed with rifle-muskets and fought on foot, they are sometimes described as mounted infantry, and Roddey earned the nickname “Defender of North Alabama.”

Roddey’s forces slowed Union General Grenville Dodge during Streight’s Raid in 1863. In 1864 his brigade served in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana and stayed in Alabama during Hood’s Nashville campaign. In March 1865, during Wilson’s raid into south Alabama, Roddey’s troops fought at the Battle of Selma; most of his command was captured, and the remaining soldiers surrendered in May at Pond Springs, Alabama.

After the war, Roddey moved to Tuscaloosa, then to New York City to work as a commission merchant, and later moved to London for business. He died in London in 1897, and his body was brought back to Tuscaloosa for burial.

In 1868 a later scandal surfaced involving a secret marriage to Carlotta Frances Shotwell, a wealthy New Jersey woman. She claimed to be his wife and accused him of various schemes, including the loss and recovery of railroad bonds. Roddey denied the marriage, but the case exposed him as a bigamist and adulterer in the eyes of the public. Shotwell was acquitted of some charges and published a memoir about her experiences. Roddey reportedly fled the United States and died in London in 1897.