Northern most unit for CSA

[27VA]

Friends,

I am currently doing some research on the "Shriver Greys" a volunteer company originally from Wheeling "Virginia" and was mustered into service as Company G,
27th Virginia, of the Stonewall Brigade. As far as I can tell from records this was the
northern most company mustered into Confederate military service. Is there any information to dispute this claim? Not considering bushwackers from the west.

Thanks
Shawn Stern

Member recreated 27th Va Co G
Shriver Greys
Board of Direstors of WV Independence Hall

[boozie]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

In a stright line across the U.S., West Virginia is farther north than these southern Illinois counties, but, these gents were north of the Ohio River.

https://www.illinoiscivilwar.org/cwtn15g.html

[parebel]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Some of these men belomged to the "Rough and Ready" Hose Company of the Wheeling Fire Department, and reference to them can be found on the dept's web page. I grew up close by, pretty neat stuff.
Josh Orpen
SWB

[brown]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Please take my comment with a grain of salt (I am very proud that my southern family was Unionist):
Glad to see Capt. Cunningham was at least loyal...

[nrandolph]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Josh,

Interestingly enough the 1st WV (Loyal Virginia) Co. A was formed in Wheeling and also called the "Rough and Ready" company. No doubt that all of the men on both sides in Wheeling knew each other pre-war. The 27th took a heckuva beating throughout the war. Certainly they took a much harder blow to their members than did the 1st.

BTW, where did you grow up "around" Wheeling? I live in Hancock Co, the home of Co. I of the 1st.

Neil Randolph
1st WV

[27VA]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Thanks for the input.

Clarification? What men where part of the Wheeling fire dept? I live in Wheeling and frequent the Ohio Co library where there is a wealth of info and have never saw mention of this group. Was this the union contingent? Rough and Ready?

Shawn Stern
Wheeling WV

[parebel]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

According to the department's history on their page, there were members of the 1st Va Vols. (US), and Co. C of the 27th Va (CS). I grew up right across the state line in the backwoods of Washington Co. Pa.
Here is the link:

https://www.wheelingfire.com

Josh Orpen
SWB

[Parault]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

It just goes to show you that Firefighters responded then as today whenever we are called for whatever reason.



P.L. Parault
3rd Ark Co. D

[styler]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Fire companies in the mid-19th Century were often pet creatures of ward or other political bosses, they were certainly exclusive clubs with definate expectations of services other than firefighting. The men and boys were brave, no doubt, but I don't think one would be going too far in calling many of the organizations that existed "gangs." In some ways many modern fire departments aren't oh-so-different, but the violence and rivalry has been toned down quite a bit.

I'm wondering about the Union/Confederate split within the "Rough and Ready" fire company. Is there much background about those who joined either the 1st or the 27th Virginias or the politics of the company before secession?

[nrandolph]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

I don't know much about the split within the Wheeling Fire Dept. that led to two companies forming for opposite sides. I do know that the 1st was formed, predominately, from the counties of West Virginia's northern panhandle. The company that went to the 27th Virginia, I woud think, is probably the only that came from this area and joined up with the other companies of the 27th elsewhere.

Neil Randolph
1st WV

[27VA]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

After doing alittle more research I have found that none of the Shriver Greys listed their occupation as firefighter. I can not access the Wheeling fire dept history section I would really like to see the basis for this history.

Shawn Stern

[Hank Trent]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

After doing alittle more research I have found that none of the Shriver Greys listed their occupation as firefighter. I can not access the Wheeling fire dept history section I would really like to see the basis for this history.

Would Wheeling have had a paid fire department then? I'd expect them to be volunteers, and thus not show their actual occupation as firefighter.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[parebel]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Hank is correct, the departments page specifies that members of the rough and ready company were bricklayers,carpenters, plasterers, mechanics and other tradesmen. It also goes on to say that this fire company was never surpassed fo bravery and effectiveness. They had a hand engine that was purchased in Baltimore in 1850. I posted the wrong link before, here is the correct one:

http://wheelingfire.com/

Josh Orpen
2nd VA Co E
Shocker Mess
Stonewall Brigade

[Dan Hadley]

Re: Northern most unit for CSA

Friends,

I am currently doing some research on the "Shriver Greys" a volunteer company originally from Wheeling "Virginia" and was mustered into service as Company G,
27th Virginia, of the Stonewall Brigade. As far as I can tell from records this was the
northern most company mustered into Confederate military service. Is there any information to dispute this claim? Not considering bushwackers from the west.

Thanks
Shawn Stern

Member recreated 27th Va Co G
Shriver Greys
Board of Direstors of WV Independence Hall

Hi Shawn,

Your claim of the Shriver Greys being the northernmost company mustered into Confederate military service prompted me to do some checking, for I thought I could challenge your observation. Technically I cannot, but read on- it's still interesting.

Joseph C. Porter had lived in several of Missouri's northernmost counties by the start of the war. He enlisted in the Missouri State Guard, was captain of Co. K, of the Monticello Grays (Lewis County), 1st Cavalry Regt., MSG, and fought in the battles of Lexington & Pea Ridge. Due to his leadership abilities, he quickly gained the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the spring of 1862 he returned home, on the orders of General Sterling Price, to raise recruits throughout northeast Missouri. With his recruits he actively pursued and engaged Federal forces throughout NE Missouri during 1862.

Most of his force's engagements took place in Missouri's northernmost counties; Marion, Knox, Lewis, Clark, Scotland & Schulyer. Many of those locales are further north than Wheeling, WV- Wheeling's latitude is 40º 4' 13" N; Monticello, MO, in Lewis County, where Porter and other recruits joined the Missouri State Guard in 1861 and headed south to fight, and then returned in 1862 to recruit and fight more, has a latitude of 40º 7' 4" N. Many of the communities that provided recruits to the Missouri State Guard were farther north than this. The site of the Battle of Athens, MO, which pitted MSG against Union Home Guard troops, has a northerly latitude of 40º 29' 43".

But as I said, technically I cannot challenge your claim, because they were mustered not into Confederate service, but rather into the Missouri State Guard. But in the defense of their sovereign state from who they perceived as Federal invaders, the Missouri State Guard "conducted an exceptionally brave, gallant and determined defense of their State in the face of overwhelming and impossible odds", and were a far cry from the brutal "bushwhacker" stereotypes that characterized the region of northern Missouri later in the war.

Of course many State Guardsmen left Missouri and crossed the Mississippi with Price, at the urging of Jeff Davis, and fought as Confederates in the Army of Tennessee. Their record speaks for itself. So the boys mustered in the northern Missouri counties in '61 & '62 were not Confederates- yet- but they were equal in every other sense of the word.

A couple good books that I quickly referenced for this reply were:

"With Porter In North Missouri" by Joseph A. Mudd

"Sterling Price's Lieutenants" by Richard Peterson, James McGee, Kip Lindberg & Keith Daleen

Dan Hadley