John Brown’s raid in October 1859 caused considerable anxiety through out the southland and intensified the animosity between the two sections. All through the south and particularly in Virginia, the call went out to form volunteer companies to thwart any future abolitionist raids.

[James I. Robertson, Jr., Stonewall Jackson, The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, Macmilliam Publishing USA, 1997, p. 197]

In Culpeper [Virginia], a resident asserted, “patrols were increased, mass-meetings were held, military companies were raised and equipped and everything was done to put the State in readiness for war.”

[James I. Robertson, Jr., General A. P. Hill, The Story of a Confederate Warrior, Random House, New York, 1987, p. 33]