The 24th Virginia was assembled in Lynchburg in June, 1861, with companies recruited from Floyd, Franklin, Carroll, Giles, Patrick, Pulaski, Mercer, Montgomery County and Henry Counties.[1]
After fighting under former U.S. Army officer and Franklin County delegate Col. Jubal Early at the First Manassas, the 24th Virginia was assigned to Brigades in the Army of Northern Virginia often colloquially referred to by the commander's surname—first commanded by Early (hence "Early's Brigade"), then after his promotion, by future CSA General and Virginia state senator W. R. Terry (hence "Terry's Brigade"), who was temporarily disabled by a wound at the Battle of Williamsburg and temporarily replaced as brigade commander by future CSA General and later Virginia Governor James L. Kemper (hence "Kemper's Brigade").
The 24th Virginia participated in the Army of Northern Virginia's campaigns from the Peninsula Campaign to Gettysburg, except when it was detached to Siege of Suffolk under Gen. Longstreet. It was involved in the Drewry's Bluff (May 1862), Plymouth (in Washington, North Carolina in April 1864), the Petersburg siege north of the James River (June 1864-March 1865), and the final Appomattox operations.
The regiment contained 740 men in April, 1862. It reported 189 casualties at Williamsburg and 107 casualties at Seven Pines as it defended the Confederate capitol at Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign. It lost 4 killed, 61 wounded, and 14 missing at Frayser's Farm, and 8 men were wounded at Fredericksburg. About forty percent of its 395 soldiers engaged at Gettysburg were disabled. Many were lost at Sayler's Creek in the war's final weeks. After General Lee formally surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, no officers but 22 men surrendered on April 9, 1865.
.svg){kind=link}