In the past few years, I created multiple page stubs for invading Ohio and Indiana regiments, chiefly because there is more information readily available online for Union regiments. Information on Virginia regiments is harder to come by, especially for those who fought in Northwestern Virginia.
When updating casualty information for the Battle of Corrick’s Ford, however, I realized that listing casualties by name on the individual battle pages would take up a lot of space (in some cases) and reduce readability. It would be better to keep track of all casualties on their unit page.
Since I was researching and updating casualties for the 23rd Virginia Regiment, I decided it was time to start creating individual pages for Virginia units, where I can keep track of the casualties. In this case, I mainly relied on Thomas M. Rankin’s book 23rd Virginia Infantry (1985), which contains a detailed list of every member of the regiment.
Unfortunately, Rankin doesn’t give the number of men mustered with every company in 1861. He totals up all men who served in each company, which includes those who joined later. For example, this website states that 81 men initially mustered into Company H, but Rankin has 117 members of that company in his book.
The 23rd Virginia was heavily engaged in July 1861 at the battles of Laurel Hill and Corrick’s Ford. It suffered high losses in dead, wounded, and captured (compared to other units), and its ranks were thinned by disease. Of all the regiments who fought in the Confederate Army of the Northwest, the 23rd was hardest hit. It went on to join Stonewall Jackson in the Valley and fought with the Army of Northern Virginia until its surrender in 1865.
It surrendered with 8 officers and 49 men of 1,090 total who served under its banner. Check out its unit page here.
Spirit of '61 