Active May 1861 – Spring 1865 Type Regiment | Allegiance Virginia Role Infantry | |
Country Confederate States of America Branch Confederate States Army | ||
The 2nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in today’s West Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought as part of the Stonewall Brigade, mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
The 2nd Virginia was assembled at Charles Town in April, 1861, then moved to Harper's Ferry to seize the armory. The unit was accepted into Confederate service in July. Its companies were from the counties of Clarke, Frederick, Floyd, Jefferson, and Berkeley. It became part of the Stonewall Brigade and served under Generals T.J. Jackson, R.B. Garnett, Winder, Paxton, J.A. Walker, and W. Terry.
The 2nd fought at First Manassas, Second Manassas, First Kernstown, and in Jackson's Valley Campaign. It went on to fight with the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor except during the Maryland Campaign when it was detached to Martinsburg as provost guards. Later the unit was involved in Early's operations in the Shenandoah Valley and the Appomattox operations.
It reported 90 casualties at First Kernstown, 25 at Cross Keys and Port Republic, 27 at Gaines' Mill, and 77 at Second Manassas. The regiment lost 2 killed and 19 wounded at Fredericksburg, had 8 killed and 58 wounded at Chancellorsville, and had about eight percent of the 333 engaged at Gettysburg disabled. On April 9, 1865, it surrendered with 9 officers and 62 men. A Notable death from the Regiment is the one of Private John Wesley Culp, who was killed on his Uncles Farm in Gettysburg ( Culp's Hill )
Its field officers were Colonels James W. Allen, Lawson Botts, and John Q.A. Nadenbousch; Lieutenant Colonels Raleigh T. Colston, Francis Lackland, and William W. Randolph; and Majors Francis B. Jones, Edwin L. Moore, and Charles H. Stewart.
Dr. Hunter McGuire, who eventually would become Chief Surgeon of the Second Corps, amputating the arm of Stonewall Jackson after Chancellorsville, and the leg of Isaac Trimble after Gettysburg, as well as a founder of the Medical Society of Virginia and a president of the American Medical Association, initially enlisted as a private in Company F.