18th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate)

Brief History
18th Infantry Regiment completed its organization in May, 1861. Its members were recruited at Danville and Farmville, and in the counties of Nottoway, Cumberland, Prince Edward, Appomattox, Pittsylvania, and Charlotte. Many were captured at Sayler's Creek and only 2 officers and 32 men surrendered. The field officers were Colonels Henry A. Carrington and Robert E. Withers, Lieutenant Colonel George C. Cabell, and Major Edwin G. Wall.

Companies in this Regiment with the Counties of Origin
Men often enlisted in a company recruited in the counties where they lived though not always. After many battles, companies might be combined because so many men were killed or wounded. However if you are unsure which company your ancestor was in, try the company recruited in his county first.

Company A (Danville Blues) - many men from Danville Virginia

Company B (Danville Grays) - many men from Danville, Virginia

Company C (Nottoway Rifle Guards) - many men from Nottoway County

Company D (Prospect Rifle Grays) - many men from Prince Edward County

Company E (Black Eagle Rifles) - many men from Cumberland County

Company F (Farmville Guard) - many men from Farmville, Virginia (Prince Edward and Cumberland Counties)

Company G (Nottoway Grays) - many men from Nottoway County

Company H (Appomattox Grays) - many men from Appomattox County

Company I  (Spring Garden Blues) - many men from Pittsylvania County

Company K (Charlotte Rifles) - many men from Charlotte County, mustered in February 1861. Reorganized Aptil 1862 with Captains Thomas J. Spencer, Mathew Lyle, Robert Morton Shepperson, Martin Luther Covington, William Henry Smith.

The information above is from 18th Virginia Infantry, by James I. Robertson

Other Sources

 * Beginning United States Civil War Research gives steps for finding information about a Civil War soldier or sailor. It covers the major records that should be used. Additional records are described in Virginia in the Civil War and United States Civil War, 1861 to 1865 (see below).


 * National Park Service, The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, is searchable by soldier's name and state. It contains basic facts about soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, a list of regiments, descriptions of significant battles, sources of the information, and suggestions for where to find additional information.


 * Virginia in the Civil War describes many Confederate and Union sources, specifically for Virginia, and how to find them.. These include compiled service records, pension records, rosters, cemetery records, Internet databases, published books, etc.


 * United States Civil War, 1861 to 1865 describes and explains United States and Confederate States records, rather than state records, and how to find them. These include veterans’ censuses, compiled service records, pension records, rosters, cemetery records, Internet databases, published books, etc.


 * Irby, Richard. Historical Sketch of the Nottoway Grays, Afterwards Company G, Eighteenth Virginia Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia: Prepared at the Request of the Surviving Members of the Company at Their First Reunion at Bellefont church, July 21, 1877. Richmond, Va.: J.W. Fergusson &amp; Sons, 1878. Digital version at Internet Archive; and Camp life of a Confederate boy, of Bratton's Brigade, Longstreet's Corps, C.S.A. (Bethesda, Maryland : University Publications of America, c1990),


 * Jordan, Virginia Fitzgerald. The Captain remembers : the papers of Captain Richard Irby. (Nottoway [Virginia] : Nottoway County Historical Association, c1975),


 * Robertson, James I. 18th Virginia Infantry. Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1984..