21st Virginia Infantry

Some paint has been sloshed - we are already guaranteed to have a better painting total than 2016! 😏

Not sure what came over me but decided it was time I got the paint brushes out and before I know it these guys had been completed... let me introduce you to the 21st Virginia Infantry - another regiment of Stonewall Jackson's famed 'foot cavalry'...

The regiment was first organised in June, and mustered into Confederate service in July, 1861, at Fredericksburg, Virginia. As was usual at this time the regiment was formed from a number of separate (already existing) companies, as these tiny units concentrated they were simply grouped together and made into a regiment - in this case most of the men were recruited in the city of Richmond and the counties of Charlotte, Mecklenburg, Cumberland, and Buckingham. The regimental Colonel was William Gilham [clicky] (of the Virginia Military Institute), and the regiment eventually comprised ten companies, totalling about 850 rank and file.

After participating in Lee's Cheat Mountain and Jackson's Valley campaigns, the unit was assigned to J.R. Jones's and W.Terry's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. At Kernstown they were in the Brigade of Colonel Jesse S. Burks..

This regiment reported 60 casualties at First Kernstown and in May, 1862, totalled about 600 effectives (so 25% losses in less than 10 months!).

Colonel Gilham and Major Scott Shipp left the regiment on January 9, 1862 (so before Kernstown) to resume their duties at the Virginia Military Institute (though Shipp was to return to command the regiment until the surrender at Appomattox). At Kernstown, the regiment was led by their Lieutenant Colonel, John M. Patton (who was an ancestor of George S. Patton), after the battle the regiment elected him colonel

John M Patton Jr.

The regiment went on to serve at Gaines' Mill, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, the Bristoe campaign and the Mine Run operations (of November 26 to December 2 1863) before fighting in the Wildnerness campaign (where their brigade's losses here were very severe), Spotsylvania Court House, the crossing of the Monocacy River, Cedar Creek, and finally the defence of Petersburg.

It lost 37 killed and 85 wounded at Cedar Mountain, had 3 killed and 9 wounded at Second Manassas, and reported 4 killed and 40 wounded at Chancellorsville. Of the 236 engaged at Gettysburg about twenty percent were disabled

"When it was evident that they were to surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, the flag of the 21st Regiment was torn into pieces and distributed among the regiment's survivors.Only 6 officers and 50 men surrendered at Appomattox"

Figures are by Newline (20mm)

Onward and upwards, the figures destined to be the 13th Indiana are primed and on the painting sticks..