29th Virginia Infantry was authorized in November, 1861, and was to contain seven companies under Colonel A.C. Moore and three companies at Pound Gap. However, this organization never took place. Moore’s five companies from Abingdon and companies raised in the spring of 1862 evidently made up the nine-company regiment. It was assigned to the Valley District, Department of Northern Virginia, then moved to Kentucky where it was engaged at Middle Creek. Later it saw action in Western Virginia and for a time served in North Carolina under General French. In March, 1863, it totalled 732 men. Attached to General Corse’s Brigade the unit participated in Longstreet’s Suffolk Expedition and during the Gettysburg Campaign was on detached duty in Tennessee and North Carolina. In the spring of 1864 it returned to Virginia and took its place in the Petersburg trenches north and south of the James River and ended the war at Appomattox.

Many were lost at Sayler’s Creek, and only 1 officer and 27 men surrendered on April 9, 1865.

The field officers were Colonels James Giles and Alfred C. Moore; Lieutenant Colonels Alexander Haynes, William Leigh, and Edwin R. Smith; and Majors Ebenezer Bruster, William R.B. Horne, and Isaac White.

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

West Virginia counties contributing soldiers: McDowell

29th Virginia Infantry – National Park Service

29th Virginia Infantry, Virginia Regimental History Series, by John P. Alderman, H.E. Howard Publishing, 1989.

29th Virginia Infantry, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Virginia, by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 214-215, entry #360.

24th Virginia Infantry, A Guide to Virginia’s Military Organizations, 1861-1865, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr., pp. 112-114.

The Hogs of Cold Harbor: The Civil War Saga of Pvt. Johnny Hess, by Richard Lee Fulgham, Createspace, 2010.