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Sketch of Longstreet's division.
Winter of 1861-62.
Until late in the fall of 1861, no
Major-Generals had been appointed in the
Confederate service; the only
general officers being
Brigadier-Generals and Generalsand consequently no divisions could be organized of the brigades which composed the army, although the necessity for them had been grievously felt, expecially in the
battle of Bull Run.
About the 1st of November, the rank having been created by Congress, a number of appointments were made, of which
General Longstreet was the fifth in rank, the first four being
Polk,
Bragg,
G. W. Smith and
Huger.
On receipt of his promotion,
General Longstreet was relieved of command of the “Advanced forces” by
General J. E. B. Stuart, and was assigned a division composed of his own old brigade, now commanded by the
senior Colonel,
J. L. Kemper; the
Virginia brigade commanded by
General P. St. George Cocke, and the South Carolina brigade of
General D. R. Jones.
General Cocke's brigade was composed of the Eighth Virginia infantry,
Colonel Eppa Hunton; Eighteenth Virginia infantry,
Colonel R. E. Withers; Nineteenth Virginia infantry,
Colonel J. B. Strange; Twenty-Eighth Virginia infantry,
Colonel Robert Preston.
Latham's Virginia Battery.--
General D. R. Jones's brigade was composed of the Fourth South Carolina Infantry,
Colonel J. B
Sloan; Fifth South Carolina Infantry,
Colonel M. Jenkins; Sixth South Carolina Infantry,
Colonel C. S. Winder; Ninth South Carolina Infantry,
Colonel Blanding;
Stribling's Virginia Battery.
The Eighth Virginia,
Colonel Hunton, was at this time on detached service at
Leesburg with
General Evans's brigade, where it bore a conspicuous part in the the affair at Ball's Bluff, on the 21st of October.
The remaining brigades of the army were about the same time thrown into three other divisions of three brigades each and commanded by
Major-Generals G. W. Smith,
E. Kirby Smith, and
Earl Van Doon.
Thus constituted, and with a small cavalry force under
General Stuart holding the outposts beyond Halifax C. H. and a General Reserve Artillery of ten batteries under
Colonel W. N. Pendleton, the army went into quarters.
As the great majority of the army were volunteers enlisted for only
