Covington County, Alabama
William Thomas Acree (1815-1895) of Covington County, Alabama, a Baptist of modest means and the owner of one slave, today enlists in the 60th Regiment (Covington County) 8th Brigade, 11th Division, of the Alabama Militia.
Acree prior to the war held several local positions. He was probate judge from 1850 to 1854; Postmaster of the Andalusia Post Office from 1855 to 1856; member of the Alabama General Assembly from 1855 to 1856; and served as a representative in the Alabama Legislature in 1857.
Acree serves in the Confederate Army throughout the war. In 1862, be attains the rank of 1st Sergeant in Company I, 40th Alabama Infantry Regiment (Covington County Farmers). As the war draws to a close in March 1865, he is captured and imprisoned by Yankee raiders and taken to Mississippi. After the war, Acree is released and returns home to Alabama.
Following the war, Acree returns to public service in Covington County. The father of at least eleven children with two wives, he remains a Baptist for the remainder of his life, and like many Baptists of the late 19th century, is also a Mason. During Reconstruction, Acree may have refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the United States, as in 1868 he was disbarred from voting. Like many white Baptists, he remains loyal to the white-dominated Old South in the post-war years.
