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51st Regiment, Virginia Infantry

51st Infantry Regiment was formed in August, 1861, with eleven companies. Company L was later assigned to the 23rd Battalion. Its members were recruited in the counties of Wythe, Nelson, Bland, Floyd, and Grayson. During the war it started in General Floyd's and G.C. Wharton's Brigade. The 51st served in the Army of the Kanawha, moved to Tennessee, and after fighting at Fort Donelson marched to Nashville with 274 men. Later it was sent to western Virginia, saw action at Carnifax Ferry, then returned to Tennessee where it was involved in the Knoxville Campaign. The unit went on to fight in numerous conflicts in the Shenandoah Valley and sometime around April 15, 1865, disbanded. It reported 9 killed, 43 wounded, and 5 missing at Fort Donelson, and 3 killed and 16 wounded at Fayetteville. Only a handful remained after the Battle of Waynesborough. The field officers were Colonels Augustus Forsberg and Gabriel C. Wharton; Lieutenant Colonels George A. Cunningham, James W. Massie, and John P. Wolfe; and Majors William T. Akers, Stephen M. Dickey, D.P. Graham, D.S. Hounshell, and William A. Yonce. [National Park Service]

Members mentioned in the Smith Letters:

Gabriel Colvin  Wharton.