HISTORICAL NOTES:

This company had a short life and was the victim of too strict discipline. It was organized in Portsmouth immediately after the burning of the Navy Yard by Captain Myers, who was an Orderly Sergeant in the battalion of marines stationed in the Navy Yard, but being a Virginian and unwilling to fight against his State, he managed to make his escape when Commodore McCauley moved off with the Pawnee and Cumberland, and remained behind. He was an excellent drill master and had no difficulty in raising a company of which he was elected Captain. It was regularly mustered into the Confederate service and was assigned to the 6th Virginia Regiment as Company E. The regiment was then under command of Colonel William Mahone. The officers were:


Captain--John H. Myers.
First Lieutenant, Virginius C. Cooke; Second Lieutenant, V. O. Cassell.
First Sergeant, B. J. Accinelly; Second Sergeantt, Enos Murphy; Third Sergeant, Richard D. Brown; Fourth Sergeant, Chas. Syer.

The company was on duty with the regiment in the entrenched camp between Norfolk and Seawell's Point, but Captain Myers undertook to carry out with the volunteers the same methods which he had been accustomed to put into operation in the marine corps in the Navy, and every infraction of the rules, however slight, or any inattention to dress or parade or drill was visited by the severest punishment in his power to inflict. If a man was absent from a roll call Captain Myers would report him as a deserter and wanted to offer a reward for his arrest and return to camp, said reward to be deducted from his pay. Matters in the company became so unbearable that nearly every man in it applied for transfers to other commands, and as the best solution of the dilemma the Colonel recommended that the company be disbanded. Both of the Lieutenants had resigned and the men were trying to get out. The last report of the company is a curiosity in its way. It was dated September 1st, 1861, and twenty-two men who were merely absent from roll call were reported as deserters, with a recommendation that all of their pay be taken from them. Others were reported for other offences, with the recommendation that one month's pay be deducted from them, and scarcely a man in the whole list had met the entire approval of the Captain. This report was made up after the receipt of the order disbanding the company, and the summary was as follows:

Transferred to Company D 11 men.
" " " C 1 "
Appointed hospital steward 1 "
Mustered out, 1 officer and 20 men 20 "
Resigned, 2 officers.
Mustered out, unwilling to remain in service 6 "
Died, 1; discharged for disability, 7 8 "
Deserted 22 "
Total--3 officers and 69 men.


Nearly all of the men enlisted in other companies and made good soldiers. It was unfortunate that the Captain could not appreciate the difference between a company newly organized of men who had been used to the widest liberty in all of their movements and who needed to be brought under a state of discipline by patient and persistent efforts, and a company of regulars on shipboard. There was abundant material for a good company, but it was badly managed. Below will be found a complete roll of the company from the date of its organization, in April, 1861, to its disbandment, September 1st, 1861. One private, Elijah Creekmore, died.

Captain--John H. Myers.
First Lieutenant--Virginius S. Cooke.
Second Lieutenant--V. O. Cassell.
First Sergeant--B. J. Accinelly.
Second Sergeant--Enos Murphy.
Third Sergeant--Richard D. Brown.
Fourth Sergeant--Charles Syer.
First Corporal--William White.
Second Corporal--James Thornton.
Third Corporal--William Parsons.
Fourth Corporal--John W. Howard.

Allen, Wm. A.,
Bullock, Joseph,
Barrett, Joseph,
Britton, Wm.,
Ballance, John,
Badger, M.,
Backus, Wm. T., Jr.,
Barrett, Matthew,
Cherry, Germain,
Curtain, Michael,
Collins, Wm. B.,
Cotton, John,
Creekmore, Elijah,
Doyle, Nathaniel,
Dewberry, James,
Elliott, Charles,
Eason, Augustus,
Elliott, John W.,
Frestine, John,
Graham, James,
Godwin, A. D. B.,
Gwynn, Isaac,
Hall, Henry,
Harrison, Chas. H.,
Halstead, Richard,
Hozier, Joseph,
Hudgins, Edward,
Hopkins, Hillary,
Halstead, Alex.,
Jordan, James,
Jordan, Wm. E.,
Jordan, Joseph,
Johnston, Geo. W.,
Knight, John M.,
Kent, Michael,
Lewis, Thomas,
Lingston, George,
Lee, Lewis,
Murphy, Patrick,
Mathews, Jacob,
Miller, Phliip,
Newby, Samuel,
Parker, George,
Parker, Robert W.,
Parker, E. K.,
Peel, John,
Reynolds, H. C.,
Rourke, Bernard,
Scheill, Mitchell,
Spaulding, John E.,
Tennis, T. S.,
Tennis, Wm.,
Walker, George,
Wagner, Fred,
Whitehurt, Robt. B.
White, Charles,
Wallace, James,
Walsh, Michael,
Walsh, James,
Wilger, Thomas.

The 6th Infantry Regiment
The Civil War in Virginia
Index