Chapter 8:
- Miscellaneous data -- notes on the contributions of various counties to the Confederate service -- Records of the Twenty-Fifth and Thirty-First regiments.
In Hampshire county, before the commencement of the war, there were two organized and uniformed companies of infantry; one known as the Frontier Riflemen, of which Robert White, afterward colonel of the Twenty-third Virginia cavalry, was captain, Elias L. Irvin first lieutenant, Job N. Cookus second lieutenant, and Daniel T. Kellar third lieutenant; and the other the Hampshire Guards, John B. Sherrard captain, D. W. Entler first lieutenant, and Felix D. Heiskell second lieutenant. The first-named company had about 96 men, and the last about 80. In May, 1861, both of these companies were ordered by the governor of Virginia to report to Col. T. J. Jackson, then commanding at Harper's Ferry. Soon afterward the Thirteenth Virginia regiment of infantry was organized, with A. P. Hill as colonel, and these companies were mustered into that regiment as Companies I and K. The world knows much of the heroism of the men of that regiment and of its hard service during the war. In the spring of 1862 the army was reorganized. Captain White was assigned to ordnance duty. He was afterward authorized, at his own request, to raise a battalion of cavalry, which he did and became major of the Forty-first battalion, Virginia cavalry, which was afterward merged in the Twenty-third regiment, of which he was colonel. Captain Sherrard, of the Guards, served during the war and was promoted to the rank of major. Another company, known as the Potomac Guards, was [106] raised in that county, and, under the command of Capt. Philip L. Grace, became Company A of the Thirty-first Virginia, one of the regiments of the old Stonewall brigade. Captain Grace was promoted to the rank of major, and afterward resigned. A company of riflemen was organized in the western end of the county, within what is now the territory of Mineral county. It went into the cavalry service under the command of the gallant Capt. George Sheetz, who lost his life on May 23, 1862, in the valley of Virginia. It became Company F of the Seventh cavalry. Capt. Isaac Kuykendall afterward commanded this company. Capt. C. S. White commanded Company C of the Twenty-third cavalry, of which company Alexander White became first lieutenant and J. R. Baker, of Hardy county, second lieutenant. The men composing this company came, for the most part, from the county of Hampshire and the adjoining county of Hardy. Capt. R. Bruce Muse commanded Company F of the Eighteenth cavalry. His command was recruited partly from Hampshire county and partly from the adjoining county of Frederick, in Virginia. Capt. Matthew Ginevan commanded Company C of the Eighteenth cavalry. Company I of this regiment went into the service with D. Ed. Bell, who became lieutenant-colonel, as its captain. In fact, a large number of the rank and file of the Eighteenth were men from Hampshire, such as Maj. Alexander Monroe. Capt. E. H. McDonald, who commanded Company D of the Eleventh cavalry, and a large number of his men, were natives of Hampshire county. Capt. J. Mortimer Lovett, a Hampshire man, commanded Company E of the Twenty-third cavalry. Another company, organized first as militia, under Capt. John H. Piles, afterward became Company K of the Eighteenth cavalry. Many of the men from this company of militia enlisted in various other commands. [107] During the war a great many of the very best people of this county were driven, or fled for refuge from their homes, among them John B. White, the clerk of the courts; Charles Blue, who frequently represented the county in the legislature; and John Kern, Jr., all three of whom died for the cause they loved, while at Richmond, during the war. The county was taken, by force of the bayonet, into the newly-formed State of West Virginia. After the war its people were disfranchised, except a few who called themselves loyal, most of whom were the newly-made colored citizens. The old and respected men were not permitted to enjoy the rights of citizenship. They could not vote, could not hold office, could not sit on juries, could not teach school, could not practice law, and were forbidden even to bring a suit to recover an honest debt. In this and the adjoining counties a great many old Confederate soldiers were harassed by suits for damages and sometimes arrested and imprisoned upon various criminal charges instituted against them in the newly-organized and so-called courts of justice under the new regime. Some were indicted for murder, some for arson, some for larceny, and some for other offenses with which they were charged for acts done as soldiers in civilized warfare. A great many suits were instituted to recover damages, in money, because of acts done by the defendants as soldiers in the army. Judgment after judgment was obtained in the courts below and sustained by the appellate court of the State; but these defendants were generally old Confederates, who had faced trials and oft-times death itself in battle, and bravely did they seek to maintain their rights as belligerents until the Supreme court of the United States at its October term, in the year 1888, decided the case of Freeland vs. Williams, involving the question of the belligerent rights of the Confederate soldiers, in their favor. The case is reported in the 131st United States Reports, at page 405. [108] There was no organized body of Confederate soldiers from Wetzel, Marshall, or Tyler counties. About fifty men in all entered the service from Wetzel, but in doing so they were compelled to run the blockade, and scattered to the four winds. Some of them were afterward found in Louisiana and Tennessee regiments. Some did not get through at all and were sent to Federal prisons. One party of five included Mordecai Yarnell, who became a member of Company G, Twenty-seventh Virginia, and was promoted to lieutenant; Ephraim Wells, promoted to captain of a cavalry company; Friend C. Cox, who became a staff officer with Gen. W. H. F. Lee; and Robert McEldowney, a member of the Shriver Grays, of Wheeling. The Shriver Grays, organized at Wheeling, with about 80 men, was organized in May, 1861, with Daniel Shriver, captain; John W. Mitchell, first lieutenant; John B. Leadley, second lieutenant; Pryor Boyd, junior second lieutenant. The company left Wheeling on the 21st or 22d of May, 1861, and went to Harper's Ferry, reporting to Col. T. J. Jackson. It was mustered in as Company G, Twenty-seventh Virginia infantry, of the Stonewall brigade. It served faithfully in that regiment until about May, 1863, when most of the survivors of the original company were transferred to the Thirty-sixth Virginia cavalry battalion, commanded by Maj. James Sweeney, of Wheeling. The battalion participated in the East Tennessee campaign as a part of Longstreet's command, was at the burning of Chambersburg, and in the rear guard after Gettysburg. Captain Shriver was succeeded in command, in the fall of 1862, by Robert McEldowney, previously orderly-sergeant. Captain McEldowney was the last remaining commissioned officer with the Twenty-seventh, on March 25, 1865, when the assault was made on Fort Stedman, and he was there wounded and disabled. Randolph county contributed the following companies [109] to the Confederate service: Company A, Eighteenth Virginia cavalry; captains, Haymond Taylor (killed below Winchester) and Job W. Parsons; lieutenants, J. W. Parsons and Elam Taylor. The company participated in every important action in the Shenandoah valley and northwest Virginia. Company I, Nineteenth Virginia cavalry, Capt. Jacob W. Marshall, Lieuts. Jacob S. Wamsley, Jacob G. Ward, George Gay (of Pocahontas, killed at New Mountain), Jacob Simmons and McLaughlin (both of Pocahontas, latter killed at Shepherdstown). This company took part in all the memorable combats in the valley and southwest Virginia after 1863. Company C, Twentieth Virginia cavalry, Capt. Elihu Hutton, Lieut. Eugene Hutton. The service of the company was about the same as that of the last-named. Company F, Thirty-first Virginia infantry, was an exclusively Randolph county organization. Its first officers were Capt. Jacob Currence, Lieuts. Jacob I. Hill, George W. Saulsbury and J. N. Potts. The company was at Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford, joined Stonewall Jackson at McDowell, and was with him till his death and with Lee to Appomattox, when about a dozen of the company were surrendered. From first to last the company included about 125 men, of whom less than 25 returned to their homes without wounds. At the reorganization in 1862 the officers elected were: Capt. J. F. Harding, and Lieuts. O. H. P. Lewis, W. H. Wilson and Dudley Long (killed at Seven Pines). Harding and Wilson were each five times severely wounded. Lewis, wounded and captured at Cedar Mountain, was one of the prisoners held under fire at Morris island, S. C. Harding was promoted to major of cavalry, and Lieutenant Wilson was the only commissioned officer from early in 1864 until in February, 1865, when he and many of his company were captured beyond Fort Stedman, in the attack upon which they led the charge. Wilson was taking a Federal captain to the rear when captured. Randolph county was also represented [110] in the Twenty-fifth and Sixty-second infantry regiments, and McClanahan's battery. One of the officers of the latter was Lieut. Parkinson Collett, of Randolph. Hardy county, the seat of which is Moorefield, on the south branch of the Potomac, 38 miles from New Creek (now called Keyser), on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, was a frequent battle ground, and suffered much from the incursions of both armies. Fremont on the march to McDowell, as well as on his return thence to intercept Jackson in the Shenandoah valley, moved his army through Hardy county. Hardy furnished the following organizations to the Confederate service: The Hardy Blues, 60 men, Capt. J. C. B. Mullen; the Hardy Grays, 60 men, Capt. A. Spangler; the South Branch Riflemen, 60 men, Capt. John H. Everly. These three companies were organized at the beginning of hostilities. The Blues and Riflemen were at Rich Mountain in June, 1861, and surrendered by General Pegram and paroled by General Rosecrans. In time they were exchanged and permitted to return to the service, when the Blues were reorganized with J. J. Chipley as captain, and the Riflemen with A. S. Scott as captain, and both were attached to the Sixty-second Virginia infantry regiment. The Grays were ordered to Harper's Ferry early in 1861, and assigned to the Thirty-third regiment of Jackson's brigade, and shared in that heroic service at First Manassas which won for the brigade and its commander the title of ‘Stonewall.’ The company served through the war, and Captain Spangler became colonel of the regiment. Hardy county contributed 55 men to Company B, Eighteenth Virginia regiment, Capt. George W. Stump; 37 men to Capt. George Sheetza company, of Turner Ashby's old regiment; and 70 men to Company B, Eleventh Virginia cavalry, Capt. William H. Harness. John H. McNeill, the famous ranger, was a native of this county, and organized his company partly of Hardy county men. In Kanawha county, the company of Kanawha Riflemen, [111] Capt. George S. Patton, was organized at the time of the John Brown raid, and entered the Confederate service in April, 1861. It included some twenty lawyers of the Charleston bar, among them, serving as privates, William A. Quarrier, T. B. Swann, Thomas L. Broun, Isaac N. Smith, S. A. Miller, R. Q. Laidley, J. G. Newman, Nicholas Fitzhugh and Thomas Smith, son of the governor and general. Another Kanawha county company was commanded by Capt. John S. Swann, and an artillery company was raised by Dr. John P. Hale. Mercer county contributed ten companies to the Confederate army. Monroe furnished the Lowry battery, the Chapman battery, and other organizations. Wayne, Putnam and Greenbrier also made generous contributions. A. J. Jenkins, of Cabell, raised a cavalry company, and afterward a regiment. Thomas L. Broun organized two infantry battalions, of two companies each, in Boone and Logan, and Dr. McChesney raised an infantry company at Peytona, Boone county, called the Boone Rangers. In Pocahontas county, the scene of many conflicts, some of which are not recorded in history, two infantry companies and one of cavalry were organized in April, 1861. One of the infantry companies, organized at Huntersville, included nearly 100 men, commanded at first by Capt. D. A. Stoner and later by Capt. J. W. Matthews, was ordered to Philippi, where it shared the fate of Colonel Porterfield's forces. The company formed part of Reger's battalion, which was consolidated with Hansbrough's battalion to form the Twenty-fifth regiment, the Huntersville company becoming Company I. The other infantry company was organized at Green Bank in April, 1861, with 106 men, under Capt. James C. Arbogast, and was ordered west on the Parkersburg turnpike, and later stationed at Laurel Hill, as Company G of the Thirty-first regiment. The cavalry company, about 75 men, Capt. Andrew McNeel, went to Laurel Hill, but could not be supplied with arms at that time, and disbanded, about a [112] third of them going into the Bath cavalry, Captain Dangerfield, with which they had distinguished service throughout the war. In the spring of 1862 Capt. William L. McNeel organized a large company of cavalry in Pocahontas, which went into the Nineteenth cavalry regiment, Col. W. P. Thompson. For the same regiment Capt. J. W. Marshall organized a company at Mingo, about half the men being from Pocahontas and half from Randolph. Colonel Imboden raised a company, chiefly in this county, for the Sixty-second Virginia. Captain McNeel and Marshall had many skirmishes in that part of the State, and should have credit for gallant and devoted service. It is estimated that Pocahontas county contributed 60 men to the Sixty-second regiment, 25 to the Eighteenth cavalry, 125 to the Nineteenth cavalry, 10 to the Twentieth cavalry, 20 to the Fourteenth cavalry, 125 to the Thirty-first infantry, 100 to the Twenty-fifth infantry, and 50 to other commands, including Edgar's battalion and Miller's battery. The Twenty-fifth regiment Virginia infantry was organized of West Virginia companies collected on the Laurel Hill line under General Garnett, mainly from Pendleton, Braxter, Webster, Upshur and Pocahontas counties. George A. Porterfield was the first colonel, succeeded by George H. Smith, of Pendleton, and John C. Higginbotham, of Upshur. The latter was killed at Spottsylvania Court House, May 10, 1864, while gallantly leading a brigade in battle. The Thirty-first infantry was organized at the same time, with the following companies: A, of Marion county, Capt. W. W. Arnett, afterward lieutenant-colonel Twentieth cavalry, succeeded by Capt. W. P. Thompson, promoted to colonel Nineteenth cavalry; B, of Highland county; C, of Harrison county, Capt. U. M. Turner, Lieuts. W. P. Cooper, Norval Lewis; D, of Gilmer county, Capt. J. S. K. McCutcheon, afterward lieutenant-colonel and wounded at Cedar Mountain, and Lieut. John [113] Campbell; E, of Highland county; F, of Randolph county, Captain Harding; G, of Pocahontas county; H, of Barbour county, Capt. Thomas Bradford, Lieut. I. V. Johnson; I, of Lewis county, Capt. Alfred Jackson, of Weston, afterward lieutenant-colonel and wounded at Cedar Mountain, Lieut. Nathan Clawson. Col. William L. Jackson was the first in command, and early in 1862 was succeeded by John S. Hoffman, of Clarksburg. John G. Gittings, adjutant of the regiment two and a half years, was afterward adjutant-general of Jackson's cavalry brigade. These two regiments, the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first, fought together during the war, in West Virginia under Garnett and Edward Johnson, and, after the battle of McDowell, under Stonewall Jackson. In Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah valley campaign, they, with the Twelfth Georgia and Thirteenth Virginia, formed the Fourth brigade of the army, commanded by Gen. Arnold Elzey, and after he was wounded, by Col. A. J. Walker, of the Thirteenth. The Thirty-first was engaged at Franklin, Strasburg and Winchester, and both regiments at Cross Keys and Port Republic. At the latter combat the Thirty-first lost 116 out of 226 and was saved from destruction by the timely charge of Richard Taylor's Louisiana brigade. The Pocahontas company in fifteen minutes lost half of its men in battle. In the Twenty-fifth Capt. W. T. Gammon and Lieuts. E. D. Camden, J. J. Dunkle and John H. Johnson were wounded, and in the Thirty-first Capt. R. H. Bradshaw and Lieut. A. Whitley were killed, and Lieuts. J. W. Arnett, J. M. Burns and W. C. Kincaid were wounded. The regiments went through the Seven Days battles before Richmond, and in the Second Manassas campaign were brigaded with the Thirteenth, Forty-fourth, Forty-ninth, Fifty-second and Fifty-eighth Virginia, under General Early, Ewell's division, Jackson's corps. Lieutenant-Colonel Jackson, commanding the Thirty-first, and Major Higginbotham, commanding the Twenty-fifth, were both [114] wounded at Cedar Mountain. General Early in his report of that battle specially mentioned the gallantry of Captain Lilley, of the Twenty-fifth, and the color-bearer, leading a portion of his regiment in the face of the enemy, and the color-bearers of the Thirty-first, who advanced waving their flags, and rallying part of that regiment around them. At Second Manassas Early's brigade made a gallant charge, in which Colonel Smith and Major Higginbotham of the Thirty-first were severely wounded. The regiments were at the capture of Harper's Ferry and the battles of Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. On April 11th they were detached to General Imboden's command in the Shenandoah valley. Under that leader they marched rapidly across the mountains, attacking and routing the enemy at Beverly, and thence by way of Buckhannon, Weston, Bulltown, to Frankfort, Greenbrier county, with several skirmishes. Marching to Buffalo gap, they took cars for Fredericksburg and returned to the army after an absence of just one month. The night following their return they began the march for Winchester, under the brigade command of Gen. William Smith. After marching to York, Pa., they returned to fight at Gettysburg under Ewell, now commanding the corps. Subsequently they participated in all the battles of the Second corps, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, South Anna, Petersburg, Hatcher's Run, Fort Stedman, and finally stacked arms at Appomattox Court House. The gallant Col. John S. Hoffman led the brigade on the day of the bloody angle fight at Spottsylvania, General Pegram having been wounded at the Wilderness, and his brigade and Gen. C. A. Evans' Georgians were chiefly instrumental in holding the line and saving the army from a terrible defeat. The flag of the Thirty-first, which was presented by the hand of Stonewall Jackson, at the request of the ladies who made it, is yet preserved at the town of Beverly. [115] Company B, Sixtieth regiment, was organized at Blue Sulphur Springs, by its captain, A. M. Buster, who was succeeded a year later by J. W. Johnson. The company participated in the Seven Days battles before Richmond, Cedar Mountain, Fayetteville, Cloyd's Mountain, Piedmont, and all the battles under Early in the Shenandoah valley. ‘The Twenty-ninth Virginia infantry, recruited in western Virginia, and commanded by Col. James Giles, was detached from Colston's brigade and assigned to Corse's, at Petersburg, in the spring of 1863. A large regiment, composed of sturdy mountaineers, it did good service on the Blackwater, and with Corse was distinguished at Drewry's Bluff and Five Forks.’ （Harrison's ‘Pickett and His Men.’） Stephen A. Morgan, a lawyer of Morgantown, and member of the Virginia convention of 1861, was one of six brothers in one of the companies with Porterfield, later Company A, Thirty-first infantry. His widow writes: ‘The first gun fired against the enemy was by Private T. Night, on picket, killing his antagonist, while Night was wounded in the ear. The first council of war was held at Pruntytown, in the parlor of the house now owned by C. Pierpont Hoffman, by Colonel Porterfield, Col. Edward J. Armstrong, George W. Hansbrough, Mortimer Johnson and Stephen A. Morgan.’ For the data embraced in these scattering notes the author is indebted to Capt. J. V. Williams, of Hardy; Capt. E. W. Boggs, of Company E, Twenty-fifth regiment; Henry A. Yeager, commander of camp at Marlinton; John G. Gittings, of Clarksburg, former adjutant of the Thirty-first regiment; Capt. Robert McEldowney, of New Martinsville; George W. Printz, of Beverly; Maj. Thomas L. Broun, of Charleston.
