[civil War] [seven Days Battle] [confederate] Independence or Annihilation, Campaigns of the 60th Virginia Regiment of Infantry [first edition]

The 60th Virginia Infantry Regiment consisted of soldiers from Mercer, Monroe, Greenbrier, Fayette, Roane, Botetourt, Alleghany, Braxton and Fauquier Counties. The regiment was originally organized as the 3rd Regiment in Wise's Legion in mid-1861. On August 13, 1861 the Sixtieth Virginia Regiment was formed with ten companies of the Legion. The unit served under General Wise in his Western Virginia campaign until they were ordered to South Carolina with General Lee to guard the coastal region. The Sixtieth returned to Virginia to defend Richmond in the Seven Days battle of 1862. This newly christened regiment received 204 casualties while fighting at Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill and Frayser's Farm. At Frayser's Farm the unit charged and recaptured six napoleon cannons while struggling hand-to-hand with the bayonet. This altercation earned the Sixtieth the distinction of crossed bayonets being placed on their regimental flag, by order of General Lee. Afterwards the regiment served under Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and then under Col. McCausland, protecting the mountain passes of southwestern Virginia from the 1862 to early 1864. Grant's 1864 three pronged assault induced heavy campaigning. At Cloyd's Mountain the Sixtieth received 152 causalities and the deaths of both their Lt. Col. and Major. The following month at Piedmont their Ensign was killed. They defeated Gen. Hunter at Lynchburg and then swarmed the union capital, fighting at Monocacy, Kernstown and then Winchester, where their flag was captured. Col. Jones said this flag, "attracted the death-shot to half a dozen color-bearers". The regiment then fought at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek before relenting to the Union's overwhelming numbers at Waynesboro, where almost all the men of the regiment were captured with their commander. The few men that escaped and the remaining men not present were disbanded at Christiansburg, Virginia after learning of Lee's surrender.