By Jarred Marlowe
When the Civil War began in 1861, men from Henry County joined neighbors from across Southwest Virginia to form the 24th Virginia Infantry. Organized in Lynchburg that June, the regiment quickly became one of the most active units in the Army of Northern Virginia. For the men who filled its ranks, the story of their service would closely follow the story of the war itself.
From the beginning, the 24th Virginia was present where the fighting was fiercest. Under Col. Jubal A. Early, the regiment saw its first action at the First Battle of Manassas, the Confederacy’s first major victory. It then marched east to defend Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign, where it endured brutal combat at Williamsburg and Seven Pines, suffering heavy losses as Union forces threatened the Confederate capital. In the Seven Days’ Battles that followed, the regiment helped drive those forces back from the city.
By 1862, leadership had passed to Col. William R. Terry, and the regiment became a key part of what soldiers called “Terry’s Brigade.” That summer, it fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, another hard-won Confederate victory, before moving north into Maryland. At Antietam, the bloodiest single day of the war, the 24th Virginia stood in reserve after having suffered major casualties a few days before at the Battle of South Mountain.
The regiment continued its steady presence in the war’s major campaigns. It was engaged at Fredericksburg, where Confederate forces held strong defensive positions, and later took part in the Siege of Suffolk during a temporary detachment under Gen. James Longstreet. By 1863, the men marched north again into Pennsylvania, fighting at Gettysburg. There, nearly 40 percent of the regiment’s engaged soldiers were killed, wounded, or disabled—a devastating blow felt deeply in Henry County and beyond.
As the war dragged on, the 24th Virginia remained in the thick of the fighting. It endured the grinding conditions of trench warfare during the Siege of Petersburg and fought at Cold Harbor, one of the war’s most costly and lopsided engagements. By this stage, the regiment’s ranks had been worn down by years of combat, disease, and hardship.
In the final months of the war, the regiment’s experience reflected the collapse of the Confederate cause. It was present at Five Forks, a crucial Union victory that forced the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. During the retreat westward, many of its remaining men were captured at Sailor’s Creek, one of the last major engagements before the war’s end. When Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, only 22 enlisted men of the 24th Virginia Infantry remained to stack their arms. No officers were present.
For Henry County, the regiment’s story is one of endurance through nearly every major campaign in the Eastern Theater. From Manassas to Appomattox, if one followed the movements of the 24th Virginia, they would trace the arc of the war in Virginia itself—its early victories, its long struggles, and its final defeat.
The men who left Henry County in 1861 returned, if they returned at all, shaped by years of relentless conflict. Their service, marked by sacrifice and persistence, remains a powerful reminder of the war’s reach into even the smallest communities—and of the lasting imprint it left on the region’s history.
Jarred Marlowe is a local resident and historian. He is a member of the Col. George Waller Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Blue & Gray Education Society, and the committee chair for the Martinsville Henry County 250 Committee. He may be reached at marloweja15@gmail.com.
