25th Virginia Infantry was organized during the early summer of 1861 and included the four companies of the 9th Battalion Virginia Infantry. Its members were raised primarily in Upshur, Augusta, Highland, Bath, Pendleton, and Rockbridge counties. The unit participated in Lee’s Cheat Mountain Campaign and Jackson’s Valley operations before being assigned to General Early’s, J.R. Jones’, and W.Terry’s Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. It took an active part in the campaigns of the army from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor, then fought with Early in the Shenandoah Valley and in various conflicts around Appomattox.

This regiment reported 18 casualties at Camp Alleghany, 72 at McDowell, and 29 at Cross Keys and Port Republic. It lost 1 killed and 24 wounded at Cedar Mountain, had 3 killed and 20 wounded at Sharpsburg, and reported 1 killed and 13 wounded at Fredericksburg. Of the 280 engaged at Gettysburg, twenty-five percent were disabled. There were no members of the 25th at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

The field officers were Colonels John C. Higginbotham, George A. Porterfield, and George H. Smith; Lieutenant Colonels Patrick B. Duffy, Jonathon M. Heck, Robert D. Lilley, and John A. Robinson; and Majors Wilson Harper, Albert G. Reger, and William T. Thompson.

[Source: National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System]

West Virginia counties contributing soldiers: Braxton, Hardy, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Ritchie,Taylor, Upshur, Webster

25th Virginia Infantry – National Park Service

25th Virginia Infantry – The Civil War in the East

25th Virginia Infantry and 9th Battalion Virginia Infantry, Virginia Regimental History Series, by Richard L. Armstrong, H.E. Howard Publishing, 1990.

25th Virginia Infantry, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Virginia, by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 205-207, entry #353.

25th Virginia Infantry, A Guide to Virginia’s Military Organizations, 1861-1865, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr., pp. 107-109.