History of Crenshaw Battery,
Pegram's Battalion, Third Corps, army of Northern Virginia—With a roster of the Company.This famous organization participated in forty-eight Engagements and many skirmishes.
Written by Private Charles P. Young, and Revised by Captain Thomas Ellett, thirty-eight years after close of the war.On Friday, March 14, 1862, there assembled at the wholesale warehouse of Messrs. Crenshaw & Co., on the Basin bank, between Tenth and Eleventh streets, Richmond, Va., one of the jolliest, most rollicking, fun-loving crowd of youngsters, between the ages of 16 and 25, that were ever thrown together haphazard, composed of clerks, book-keepers, salesmen, compositors, with a small sprinkling of solid business men, from Richmond, reinforced with as sturdy-looking a lot of farmer boys from the counties of Orange, Louisa, Spotsylvania and Culpeper as one generally comes across. The occasion of the gathering was the formation of an artillery company for active service in the field, and after the usual preliminaries, an organization was soon effected, with the following officers: Captain, William G. Crenshaw. Senior First Lieutenant, James Ellett. Junior First Lieutenant, Charles L. Hobson. Senior Second Lieutenant, Andrew B. Johnston. Junior Second Lieutenant, Thorras Ellett. The battery consisted of six guns: Two 10-pound Parrotts, two 12-pound brass Howitzers, and two 6-pound brass guns. The company was christened ‘The Crenshaw Battery,’ in honor of its first captain. His gallant bearing on the field of battle subsequently, and his noble generosity to the company, always, proved that the name was fitly chosen. Captain Crenshaw equipped the battery with handsome uniforms, overcoats, blankets, shoes, underclothing, and everything necessary for its comfort, at his own expense, and advanced the money necessary for the purchase of horses and guns to the Confederate government, thereby getting into the
