en 20th Virginia Cavalry Regiment

20th Virginia Cavalry Regiment
20th Virginia Cavalry Regiment
	Flag of Virginia, 1861
Active	August 1863 – April 1865
Disbanded	April 1865
Country	Confederacy
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Branch	Confederate States Army
Type	Cavalry
Engagements	American Civil War Jones-Imboden Raids of western Virginia; Valley Campaigns of 1864;

The 20th Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly in western Virginia.^[1]

Virginia's 20th Cavalry Regiment was organized in August, 1863, and was composed of "North Western Virginians." The unit served in W.L. Jackson's Brigade and confronted the Federals in western Virginia and in the Shenandoah Valley. It disbanded in mid-April, 1865. The field officers were Colonel W.W. Arnett, Lieutenant Colonels Dudley Evans and John B. Lady, and Major Elihu Hutton.

Companies and officers

Sortable table
Company	Nickname	Recruited at	First (then later) Commanding Officer ^[2]
A	Company A	Marion County Monongalia County	Dudley Evans
B	Company B	Marion County Monongalia County	William W. Arnett many formerly from Company D of 19th Virginia Cavalry
C	Company C	Randolph County	Elihu Hutton
D	Company D	Barbour County	Edward M. Corder
E	Company E	Harrison County	John W. Young
F	Company F	Harrison County	Asbury Lewis many formerly from Companies A and C of 19th Virginia Cavalry
G	Wood County Grays	Wood County Pleasants County	Paul Neal John D. Neal^[3]
H	Company H	Wirt County	Joseph Hayhurst many formerly from Company A and C of 19th Virginia Cavalry
I	Company I	Rockbridge County	Henry L. Heiskell
K	Company K	Rockbridge County	Ortho Alexander

In popular culture

In the science fiction short story, Field Test by Keith Laumer, a newly designed and built artificially intelligent superheavy tank called a Bolo Mark XX Model B is assigned to "the 20th Virginia, a regiment ancient and honorable, with a history dating back to Terra Insula".^[4]

References

^ Richard L. Armstrong, 19th and 20th Virginia Cavalry (H.E. Howard, Inc.1994)
^ derived from Armstrong, pp. 21-22
^ They were brothers, Paul (1832-1919) graduating from VMI, and becoming an instructor and later a merchant and recruiter. He contracted typhoid fever in 1861 and so did not initially lead the unit and was arrested at Ravenswood on his way south, then sent to Camp Chase. His brother had been in Co. I, 31st Virginia Infantry including about a year in the Stonewall brigade, before transferring to this unit. Per H. E. Matheny's Wood County, West Virginia in Civil War Times (republished 1987 by Trans-Allegheny Books of Parkersburg), pp. 535-537.
^ Keith Laumer. "Field Test". Baen eBooks. Retrieved 25 March 2015.