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. 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 the
Tredegar Iron Works in
Richmond, Virginia for Confederate use.
VMI professor
Thomas 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. The unit became part of the
Army of the Shenandoah and evacuated Harpers Ferry on June 14, 1861, upon orders of General
Joseph E. Johnston, who considered the location untenable. Troops burned the Shepherdstown bridge (private
Henry 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 the
Battle of Hoke's Run or Falling Water. 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 the
First 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 the
1st 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 Generals
T.J. Jackson,
R.B. Garnett,
Winder,
Paxton,
J.A. Walker, and
W. Terry. The 2nd Virginia fought at many famous battles throughout the conflict. In addition to First Manassas, it fought at Second Manassas (after
First Kernstown and
Jackson's Valley Campaign and with the Army of Northern Virginia from the
Seven Days' Battles to
Cold Harbor). It reported 90 casualties at
First Kernstown, 25 at
Cross Keys and
Port Republic, 27 at
Gaines' Mill, and 77 at
Second 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 at
Fredericksburg, had 8 killed and 58 wounded at
Chancellorsville, and had about eight percent of the 333 men engaged at
Gettysburg disabled. Later, the unit was involved in Jubal Early's
operations in the Shenandoah Valley and finally surrendered at the end at
Appomattox 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"). ==Significant members==