2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment
Flag of Virginia, 1861
Active	May 1861 – Spring 1865
Disbanded	1865
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	Virginia
Branch	Confederate States Army
Type	Regiment
Role	Infantry
Engagements	American Civil War First Battle of Bull Run Battle of Kernstown I Battle of Cross Keys Battle of Port Republic Battle of Gaines Mill Second Battle of Bull Run Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Gettysburg
Commanders
Notable commanders	ColonelJ.Q.A. Nadenbousch

The2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment was aninfantryregiment raised in today's westernVirginia and what becameWest Virginia during theAmerican Civil War for service in theConfederate States Army. It would combine with the4th,5th,27th, and33rd Virginia infantry regiments and theRockbridge Artillery Battery and fight as part of what became known as theStonewall Brigade, mostly with theArmy of Northern Virginia.^[1]

The 2nd Virginia was assembled at Charles Town on April 18, 1861, then moved (gathering further units en route) to Harper's Ferry to seize the armory. Its ten companies were from the counties of Clarke, Frederick, Jefferson, and Berkeley.

As the volunteer units approached the armory, they heard a roar and saw a flash as Lt. Roger Jones and his U.S. army regulars blew up the arsenal at 10p.m.^[2] Capt. John Rowan and the Jefferson Guards led the volunteers into Harpers Ferry three hours later, meeting no opposition and noticing that while 15,000 weapons had been destroyed, townspeople had saved the buildings and weapon-producing machinery inside. That machinery was soon shipped to theTredegar Iron Works inRichmond, Virginia for Confederate use.

VMI professorThomas Jonathan Jackson arrived on Monday, April 29 and organized the volunteer craftsmen, laborers and farmers of the ten drilled companies into regiments, revolutionizing their notions of war in a short time. Col. Allen and Lt. Col. Francis Lackland had both graduated in the VMI class of 1849. Captains John W. Rowan (of the Jefferson Guards of Charles Town), Vincent Moore Butler (of the Hamtramck Guards of Shepherdstown), William N. Nelson (of the Nelson Rifles of Millwood) and George W. Chambers (of the Floyd Guards raised in Harpers Ferry) had military experience in Mexico. Throughout May (as the units were mustered officially into Virginia state service mid-month), Jackson assiduously drilled the men, 12 hours each day; they learned complex maneuvers and began jelling into a single unit.^[3][4]

The unit became part of theArmy of the Shenandoah and evacuated Harpers Ferry on June 14, 1861, upon orders of GeneralJoseph E. Johnston, who considered the location untenable. Troops burned the Shepherdstown bridge (privateHenry Kyd Douglas realizing that his father was a stockholder in the property being destroyed) and joined Johnston's army four miles south of Charles Town. They would then change camp seven times in 17 days. Their first skirmish was on July 2, 1861, and involved no casualties, but lost the company's tents at what became known as theBattle of Hoke's Run or Falling Water.^[5] The 2nd Virginia was accepted into Confederate service in mid-July, then ordered on July 18 to Manassas Junction (traveling by railroad) to reinforce General P. G. T. Beauregard's Army of the Potomac. It gained its nickname at what became theFirst Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. In the previous months, the unit was sometimes known as "Virginia's First Brigade", which caused confusion as the1st Virginia Infantry was established at Richmond in May 1861 and composed of regular Virginia troops. As part of the Stonewall Brigade, the 2nd Virginia fought under GeneralsT.J. Jackson,R.B. Garnett,Winder,Paxton,J.A. Walker, andW. Terry.

The 2nd Virginia fought at many famous battles throughout the conflict. In addition to First Manassas, it fought at Second Manassas (afterFirst Kernstown andJackson's Valley Campaign and with the Army of Northern Virginia from theSeven Days' Battles toCold Harbor). It reported 90 casualties atFirst Kernstown, 25 atCross Keys andPort Republic, 27 atGaines' Mill, and 77 atSecond Manassas. However, during part of the Maryland Campaign of 1863, it was detached to Martinsburg as provost guards. The regiment lost 2 killed and 19 wounded atFredericksburg, had 8 killed and 58 wounded atChancellorsville, and had about eight percent of the 333 men engaged atGettysburg disabled. Later, the unit was involved in Jubal Early'soperations in the Shenandoah Valley and finally surrendered at the end atAppomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, with 9 officers and 62 men. A notable death from the Regiment was that of Private John Wesley Culp, who was killed on his uncle's farm in Gettysburg (hence "Culp's Hill").

Its field officers were Colonels James W. Allen (who died at theBattle of Cold Harbor),^[6] Lawson Botts (of the Botts Greys, initially raised at Charles Town as Company G, killed in skirmishes shortly before Second Manassas), andJohn Q.A. Nadenbousch (initially of Company D, the Berkeley Border Guards, raised at Martinsburg); Lieutenant Colonels Francis Lackland (a VMI graduate of the same 1849 VMI class as Col. Allen, who would be hospitalized with pneumonia and die in September 1861); Raleigh T. Colston (initially of Company E, the Hedgesville Blues, and who became the unit's colonel after Nadenbousch was forced to retire following complications after the Battle of Gettysburg and who died at theBattle of Mine Run in November 1864), and William W. Randolph; and Majors Francis B. Jones, Edwin L. Moore, and Charles H. Stewart.

Dr.Hunter McGuire, who eventually would become the Second Corps' Chief Surgeon (and amputatedStonewall Jackson's arm after Chancellorsville and the leg ofIsaac Trimble after Gettysburg), initially enlisted as a private in Company F. He became active with theMedical Society of Virginia and a president of theAmerican Medical Association, and later contributed to theFirst Geneva Convention.

• Company D, 2nd Virginia Infantry
• List of Virginia Civil War units
• List of West Virginia Civil War Confederate units

•  This article incorporatespublic domain material fromCivil War Soldiers and Sailors System.National Park Service.

• Units and formations of the Confederate States Army from Virginia
• Stonewall Brigade
• Berkeley County, West Virginia, in the American Civil War
• 1861 establishments in Virginia
• Military units and formations established in 1861
• 1865 disestablishments in Virginia
• Military units and formations disestablished in 1865

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