Thurmond’s Partisan Rangers were raised for the Confederate service primarily from Fayette, Greenbrier, and Monroe counties during the spring and summer of 1862. The two companies were commanded by brothers William D. and Philip J. Thurmond of Fayette County. As other companies of rangers formed in southern West Virginia and western Virginia, these companies joined and became a battalion variously known as Thurmond’s, Morris’, and Houndshell’s. An estimated 650 men served with this larger unit during the war, which in late 1863 became 44th Virginia Cavalry Battalion and part of the regular army.  On October 26, 1864, Capt. Philip Thurmond was killed in action at Winfield, Putnam County.

[Source: West Virginia Encyclopedia]

West Virginia counties contributing soldiers: Fayette, Greenbrier

44th Battalion Virginia Cavalry – National Park Service

Thurmond’s Partisan Rangers and Swann’s Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, Virginia Regimental History Series, by Jeffrey C. Weaver, H. E. Howard Publishing, 1993.

Thurmond’s Cavalry Battalion, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Virginia, by Stewart Sifakis, pg. 151, entry #266.

Thurmond’s Cavalry Battalion, A Guide to Virginia’s Military Organizations, 1861-1865, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr., pp. 75-76.