1st Virginia Infantry


The 1st Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in the Commonwealth of Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
The 1st Virginia completed its organization at Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1861. At the outbreak of the war it had ten companies, but in April three were detached. Thus the unit contained seven companies from Richmond and in mid-July a company from Washington, D.C. was added. Its first colonel, Patrick T. Moore, was severely wounded on July 18, 1861, in the skirmish at Blackburn's Ford, and Lt. Col. W.H. Fry commanded at the First Battle of Bull Run.
The companies were:
It fought at the Battle of First Bull Run in a brigade under James Longstreet and in August totaled 570 men. During April, 1862, when the regiment was reorganized, it contained only six companies. The 1st Virginia Infantry was assigned to A. P. Hill's, Kemper's, and W. R. Terry's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. It was active from the Battle of Williamsburg to the Battle of Gettysburg, except when it was with Longstreet at the Siege of Suffolk, Virginia. Later the unit was involved in the capture of Plymouth, the conflicts at Drewry's Bluff and Cold Harbor, the Siege of Petersburg south and north of the James River, and the Appomattox Campaign. This regiment lost twenty-two percent of the 140 engaged at the Battle of Second Bull Run, had 9 wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and had more than half of the 209 at Gettysburg disabled. Its casualties were 12 killed and 25 wounded at Drewry's Bluff, 1 killed and 77 wounded at the Battle of Five Forks, and 40 captured at the Battle of Sayler's Creek. Only 17 surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.
The field officers were Colonels Patrick T. Moore, Franklin G. Skinner, and Lewis B. Williams, Jr; Lieutenant Colonels William H. Fry and Frank H. Langley; and Majors John Dooley, William P. Mumford, George F. Norton, and William H. Palmer.