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The Commonwealth of Virginia Wants to Remember Her Troops Who Fought at Chickamauga Battlefield Photos and text by Harvey Scarborough, Chattanooga CWRT Webmaster |
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The Commonwealth of Virginia Wants to Remember Her Troops Who Fought at Chickamauga Battlefield Photos and text by Harvey Scarborough, Chattanooga CWRT Webmaster |
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| The 63rd and 54th Virginia Regiments were in Longstreet's Wing, Buckner's Corp, William Preston's Division. The 63rd was in Col. John H. Kelly's Brigade along with the 65th Georgia, 5th Kentucky and 58th North Carolina. The 54th was in Col. Robert C. Trigg's Brigade along with the 1st, 6th and 7th Florida Regiments. According to David Powell's The Maps of Chickamauga, the 63rd had 196 men engaged from which 6 were killed and 48 were wounded. The 54th had 477 men of which 4 were killed and 43 were wounded. |
| In the late evening of September 20th, both Kelly's and Trigg's men were ordered to help in the attack on Horseshoe Ridge, in particular "Hills 2 & 3." As Union troops were withdrawing from the field, the 89th Ohio, 22nd Michigan and the 21st Ohio were running out of both ammunition and daylight. Accounts mention that soldiers had to stand within 10 feet of each other just to identify the color of the uniforms. While the Union regiments were helping to hold off Confederate attacks on the retiring forces, the 54th kept pressure on the 22nd Michigan. The Confederates overlapped the Union regiments on Hill 3. It wasn't too long before the 63rd Virginia met the 7th Florida to close the circle and cutoff the last avenue for escape. |  |
| While men from Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia fought and died in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, we, too, are compelled to remember those brave men from Virginia who came here to fight and to die. |
| Check out this article from SWVaToday.com: http://www.swvatoday.com/news/article/drive_under_way_to_build_civil_war_monument/7642/#comments The 63rd And 54th Virginia Infantry Descendants Association was authorized in February & March of 2010 by the Virginia Legislature to fund and erect a monument to the soldiers of Virginia who fought in these two regiments at Chickamauga. Check out their website: http://63rdand54thvainf.com/ |