000/00/00 B. Ky [73h]
860/00/00 860Cen. Prewar farmer, age 31, Wise Co [ 73h]
861/06/03 Enl Wise C.H., Wise Co, age 33 [1]
861/07/25<861/07/31 Hosp, "left sick at Wytheville" and abs from unit through 7/31/61 [1]
861/08/11<861/11/01 Hosp, sick, White Sulphur Springs, remaining absent from unit through 11/1/61 [1]
862/06/08=862/06/26 BTD detail unspecified duty, en route from Rocky Gap to Wise Co [1]
862/07/15 Pres in unit at Narrows of New River, pd for commuted rations [1]
862/11/24=862/12/10 BTD detail. En route from Wise C.H. to unit at Narrows New River [1]
863/01/19 In unit camp, near Franklin; pd for commuted rations [1]
863/07/02-863/07/03 KIA Gettysburg. Wife was Mary Fraley, who applied for pension in Russell County, Va., postwar. [33 a, Russell] [33b]
Here's what I have on the Wise Yankee Catchers
Company H: "Wise Yankee Catchers"
Original Officers:
Logan H.N. Salyer Capt.
Jonas A. Lipps 1st Lt.
Shanklin Salyer 2nd Lt.
John R. Davis 3rd Lt.
This company enlisted for one year at Gladeville (now Wise), the county seat of Wise County, on June 3, 1861, when reportedly 101 men, principally from Wise County, were mustered. (The roster in this volume identifies four officers and 79 enlisted men.) Recruiting was abetted by a friendly competition between Logan Salyer and John P. Wolfe, future commander of Company A, 51st Virginia Infantry, who was organizing the Wise Rifles, to see who could raise the first company in Wise County. Salyer won. While one postwar report indicates Salyer's company departed for Wytheville immediately upon enlistment, it is more likely that the company arrived there between June 14 and June 27. On July 1, Captain Salyer invested $680 of his own money to procure "forty rifle guns" for the company. On July 2, the Wise County court appointed a delegation to procure "jeans and other necisarys for the volunteers of this county." The company left Wytheville on July 25. It reorganized May 12, 1862, and served with the regiment for the duration of the war with one exception. From September 11, 1862, through at least October 27 it was part of the small garrison left behind to secure the river crossings at Gauley Bridge, W.Va., while Confederate forces under General William W. Loring advanced to capture Charleston, W. Va. Only one muster roll for the unit, covering the period June 3 to November 1, 1861, exists.
Here's a short summary of the service of the 50Va.:
50th Virginia Infantry
"The Bloody Half Hundred" was organized in July 1861 from units recruited in Lee, Wise, Washington, Tazewell, Smyth, Grayson, Carroll, Pulaski, Patrick, Amherst and Nelson counties. The regiment's initial ten infantry and three cavalry companies assembled at Wytheville, part of Gen. John B. Floyd's Brigade. Ravaged by disease, the 50th battled at Cross Lanes, Carnifex Ferry and Gauley Bridge in Floyd's unsuccessful fall-1861 effort to control the Kanawha Valley. In that mountain campaign, marked more by constant marching over terrible roads in horrendous weather than by fierce combat, disease exacted huge losses that forced the regiment to temporarily consolidate with the 51st Virginia. In early 1862 the 50th fought bravely with heavy casualties at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Escaping the surrender there, the regiment trekked 260 miles to Chattanooga where most of the men, after re-enlisting, were furloughed in March. Reassembled in early May, parts of the 50th fought at Princeton and Lewisburg before the regiment reorganized in late May. The unit joined Gen. William Loring's fall-1862 campaign that captured Charleston, W.Va., but ended in retreat to the Narrows of the New River. With little respite, the 50th moved to reinforce Confederate forces on the Blackwater River in southeastern Virginia. There, 1863 began with a small, bloody affair at Kelly's Store near Suffolk. Returning briefly to southwestern Virginia in March, the 50th soon transferred east to Jones' Brigade in Stonewall Jackson's Second Corps. Fierce battles at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg hurt the 50th badly and a less-than-optimal performance at Payne's Farm closed the year's fighting. Bloodied heavily again at the Wilderness in early May 1864, the regiment fought briefly but well before being overwhelmed while defending the salient near Spotsylvania Court House. Reduced to a company-sized fragment, the 50th battled as part of the Second Corps with Gen. Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley and at Washington, D.C. In October 1864, after transfer to Gen. Gabriel Wharton's division, the 50th stood fast during the rout at Cedar Creek and remained in the Valley when the Second Corps returned to Petersburg in December. In March 1865, the debacle at Waynesborough ended the war for most of the 50th. Survivors continued serving with Gen. John Echols until his army disbanded near Christiansburg in April 1865. During nearly four years of war, more than 24 percent of "The Bloody Half-Hundred" died in battle, from disease or from Union prison conditions.