31st Virginia Infantry was organized under W.L. Jackson and mustered into Confederate service in July, 1861. Many of its members were raised in Marion, Pendleton, and Gilmer counties. The unit was active in Lee’s Cheat Mountain Campaign and Jackson’s Valley operations. Later it was assigned to General Early’s, W. Smith’s, Pegram’s, and J.A. Walker’s Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. The 31st participated in the difficult campaigns of the army from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor, then moved with Early to the Shenandoah Valley and was active around Appomattox.

This regiment reported 13 casualties at Greenbrier River, 37 at Camp Alleghany, 19 at McDowell, and 97 at Cross Keys and Port Republic. It lost 3 killed and 17 wounded at Cedar Mountain, had 5 killed and 20 wounded at Second Manassas, and suffered 1 killed and 7 wounded at Sharpsburg. Of the 267 in action at Gettysburg, ten percent were disabled. On April 9, 1865, it surrendered with 7 officers and 49 men of which 22 were armed.

The field officers were Colonels John S. Hoffman, William L. Jackson, and Samuel H. Reynolds; Lieutenant Colonels Francis M. Boykin, Alfred H. Jackson, and J.S. Kerr McCutchen; and Majors James C. Arbogast, Joseph H. Chenoweth, and William P. Cooper.

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

West Virginia counties contributing soldiers: Barbour, Braxton, Gilmer, Harrison, Kanawha, Lewis, Monongalia, Pocahontas, Randolph, Taylor

31st Virginia Infantry – National Park Service

31st Virginia Infantry – The Civil War in the East

31st Virginia Infantry, Virginia Regimental History Series, by John M. Ashcraft, H.E. Howard Publishing, 1988.

31st Virginia Infantry, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Virginia, by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 217-219, entry #363.

31st Virginia Infantry, A Guide to Virginia’s Military Organizations, 1861-1865, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr., pp. 115.