What Regiment would I have been sent to?

[Knoxklay11]

Greetings all,

I am new to the game and am extremely excited for its potential both as a fantastic game and as an effective educational tool that will help forever preserve the memory of the extraordinary men that took part in this bloody conflict.

My question involves my Civil War persona, namely where I am from and what Regiment I would have been sent to upon enlistment. I was born and raised in Harrisonburg, VA, which is in present day Rockingham County. I also said i was from here in my biography for my account. When it came time to enlist in a regiment, I thought it was best to pick a Virginia one. However, I dont know what regiment recruits from Harrisonburg would have been sent to. I know very little regarding enlistment in the Civil War but I assume recruits from small towns like Harrisonburg, which wasn't formally recognized as a town until the 1910's, would have to go to the closest major town/city to enlist, which in this case would be Charlottesville, VA. The largest Virginia regiment in the game at the moment is the 19th Virginia Infantry, Company A. According to Wikipedia, the 19th VA Infantry primarily consisted of recruits from Charlottesville and from the counties of Albemarle, Nelson, and Amherst. Albemarle is located just south of Rockingham County. Would it be at all possible that a recruit from such a small town just be sent to that larger, neighboring city to join its associated regiment? I can't find any information regarding a regiment specifically mentioning a large amount of recruits from Rockingham County, so I can only assume people travelled to Charlottesville to enlist.

If anyone has any information that may be of assistance or can point me in the right direction, please let me know! Again, I apologize for my lack of knowledge on the subject.

[TheIrishVolunteer]

Hi there,

Welcome to the CSA and to the game, even though I'm decently new myself.

I'm not exactly sure in great extent all of the details, however, the 33rd Virginia Infantry recruited directly from the counties of Hampshire, Shenandoah, Frederick, Hardy, Page, and Rockingham, and the First Virginia Cavalry took men from the counties of Amelia, Augusta, Berkeley, Clarke, Frederick, Gloucester, Jefferson, Loudoun, Rockbridge, Rockingham, and Washington. My guess is that you volunteered for a regiment that recruited from your county or region, or just joined the regiment of whoever you ran into first, but can someone confirm this for me?

If you're an Irishman in the east, and your values lie with the South, many Irishmen and other Europeans volunteered or drafted for the First Virginia Battalion (the company that I run is part of this! :D), which was primarily European/Irish enlisted/NCOs, and Canadian and American officers.

That's frankly all I can help with, maybe someone else can come along and add to this.

[MtnPatriot]

I haven't researched any regiments from your area, but if you do so, you might be surprised what you can find. I'm WNC (Western North Carolina) here, and doing research on my family I found there was a wonderful book written just on the regiment that most of my ancestors fought in. Perhaps there is someone who published a similiar book for your area.

If not, your local library should give you at least a starting point, and your State will probably have some information as well.
I recommend using all the web searches you can find (google isn't the only, nor the best one) as well as your local library and State resources.

Keep us updated, interested to know what you find out!

[SwingKid148]

In NYS, we have the New York State Military Museum. They have a list of all the counties in NYS and which regiments/companies were mustered in the county by towns. Perhaps Virginia has something similar?

https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/dornbusch/dornbuschIndex.htm

[Knoxklay11]

Hi there,

Welcome to the CSA and to the game, even though I'm decently new myself.

I'm not exactly sure in great extent all of the details, however, the 33rd Virginia Infantry recruited directly from the counties of Hampshire, Shenandoah, Frederick, Hardy, Page, and Rockingham, and the First Virginia Cavalry took men from the counties of Amelia, Augusta, Berkeley, Clarke, Frederick, Gloucester, Jefferson, Loudoun, Rockbridge, Rockingham, and Washington. My guess is that you volunteered for a regiment that recruited from your county or region, or just joined the regiment of whoever you ran into first, but can someone confirm this for me?

If you're an Irishman in the east, and your values lie with the South, many Irishmen and other Europeans volunteered or drafted for the First Virginia Battalion (the company that I run is part of this! :D), which was primarily European/Irish enlisted/NCOs, and Canadian and American officers.

That's frankly all I can help with, maybe someone else can come along and add to this.

I did a little more research and you were right about the 33rd! Turns out there was a company ( I ) in the 33rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry, which I was excited to learn was part of the legendary Stonewall Brigade, that was largely composed of men from Rockingham county and was known as the Rockingham Confederates. Very cool! I am definitely going to do much more research on the topic, I may even start my own Company I for the 33rd once I have more time to properly contribute to a regiment on here. Thank you all for the helpful advice so far!

[A. P. Hill]

Congratulations on your findings! Wish you the best of your efforts.

[TheIrishVolunteer]

I did a little more research and you were right about the 33rd! Turns out there was a company ( I ) in the 33rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry, which I was excited to learn was part of the legendary Stonewall Brigade, that was largely composed of men from Rockingham county and was known as the Rockingham Confederates. Very cool! I am definitely going to do much more research on the topic, I may even start my own Company I for the 33rd once I have more time to properly contribute to a regiment on here. Thank you all for the helpful advice so far!

Hey, what do you know! The CO (and founder per-se) of 33rd VA(I) became the Commanding Officer for the Brigade, and eventually the division that my battalion (First Virginia “Irish” Battalion) was attached too!

[dmurray6]

Greetings all,

I am new to the game and am extremely excited for its potential both as a fantastic game and as an effective educational tool that will help forever preserve the memory of the extraordinary men that took part in this bloody conflict.

My question involves my Civil War persona, namely where I am from and what Regiment I would have been sent to upon enlistment. I was born and raised in Harrisonburg, VA, which is in present day Rockingham County. I also said i was from here in my biography for my account. When it came time to enlist in a regiment, I thought it was best to pick a Virginia one. However, I dont know what regiment recruits from Harrisonburg would have been sent to. I know very little regarding enlistment in the Civil War but I assume recruits from small towns like Harrisonburg, which wasn't formally recognized as a town until the 1910's, would have to go to the closest major town/city to enlist, which in this case would be Charlottesville, VA. The largest Virginia regiment in the game at the moment is the 19th Virginia Infantry, Company A. According to Wikipedia, the 19th VA Infantry primarily consisted of recruits from Charlottesville and from the counties of Albemarle, Nelson, and Amherst. Albemarle is located just south of Rockingham County. Would it be at all possible that a recruit from such a small town just be sent to that larger, neighboring city to join its associated regiment? I can't find any information regarding a regiment specifically mentioning a large amount of recruits from Rockingham County, so I can only assume people travelled to Charlottesville to enlist.

If anyone has any information that may be of assistance or can point me in the right direction, please let me know! Again, I apologize for my lack of knowledge on the subject.

Greetings Knox and welcome to WoR's! My Civil War Confederate ancestors all came from and mustered in and around Highland County, just west/south-west of Rockingham. Monterey and McDowell, VA areas.

The regiment you would have gone to as a resident of Rockingham County, like most soldiers of the day, would have depended on when you enlisted. Men from Rockingham County enlisted, during the course of the war, in AT LEAST the following regiments. Here is a nice link from JMU: (Resource: JMU Library (https://www.lib.jmu.edu/rockbib/bibs/fgha.htm))

10th VA Infantry (Origins from militia's established in the last 1850's, obviously present in early-war)
Company B ( Rockingham Rifles) many men from Rockingham County
Company C ( 2nd) (Mauck's Company) - many men from Rockingham County
Company D (Bridgewater Greys) - many men from Rockingham County
Company E (Peaked Mt. Grays) - many men from Rockingham County
Company G (Valley Guards) - many men from Rockingham County
Company H (Chrisman's Infantry) - many men from Rockingham County
Company I (Riverton Invincibles) - many men from Rockingham County and Alleghany County.

Here are some militia regiments from Rockingham, not sure if these are the ones that made up the 10th VA Infantry, more research would be required.
58th Regiment Militia (eastern Rockingham Co.)
116th Regiment Militia (western Rockingham Co.)
145th Regiment Militia (Rockingham Co.)

25th VA Infantry/9th Battalion VA Infantry (Mustered early summer of 1861)
Company I (Mount Crawford Cavalry) (formerly Valley Rifles) - many men from Rockingham County

31st VA Infantry (Mustered in July, 1861)
1st Company B ( Pendleton County Minutemen) - many men from Rockingham County

33rd VA Infantry (Mustered early summer of 1861)
Company I (Rockingham Confederates) many men from Rockingham County

1st VA Cavalry (Mustered in July, 1861)
Rockingham County men are included in this regiment

7th VA Cavalry (Mustered late Spring, 1861)
Included men from Rockingham County

10th VA Cavalry (Mustered in May, 1862)
Rockingham County men made up a major portion of this regiment

11th VA Cavalry (Mustered in February, 1863)
Included men from Rockingham County

12th VA Cavalry (Mustered in June, 1862)
Company H (Emanuel Sipe Company) - many men from Harrisonburg, Rockingham County

18th VA Cavalry (Mustered in December, 1862, Most of its members had served in the 1st Regiment Virginia Partisan Rangers (subsequently the 62nd Virginia Infantry Regiment)
Rockingham County men served.

As you can see, you may not find any documented (online) evidence of Rockingham men serving in the 18th VA Cavalry, but if they served in the other mentioned regiments, they may have very well not mustered with the 18th, but became part of the 18th. This needs to be considered with every regimental history, likely due to the post-battle merger of companies/regiments. A lot of these references to "Rockingham County men served here...." looks like they came directly from the Virginia Regimental Series of books.

Let's hope your Rockingham ancestors were not a part of the Rockingham Rebellion! :) (Resource: Rockingham_Rebellion (https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Rockingham_Rebellion#start_entry))

[S. Johnson]

You would have been in the 38th Pennsylvania because you want to quell the rebellion lol ;)