Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/328

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

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 Sheetz' 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 Rifle-