11th Virginia Infantry Company F (Preston Guards)

You may want to message this gentleman: Dr. R. Owen Wyant, (PhD)

J.Daniel Peardon

Dear Private,

Have you tried looking at the records on Fold3.com? They have the monthly individual muster rolls for all the members of this regiment in the website's Civil War Service Records collections. Unfortunately they are organized by last name, so finding all the members of Company F will require a bit of work. Looking at the few location references in the service records for Capt. Douthat of Company F, the unit was stationed at Centreville, an important railroad junction, in 1861-62 and then from Sept to Nov, 1864 there are references to them being camped near Chester Station, VA, which was an important intersection of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad.

Sincerely,
Tamas Caldwell-Gilbert

Tamas! ...

Thank you VERY much for writing back. I actually just finished reading the book by Robert T. Bell called "The 11th Virginia Infantry". Here are the main points about company F that I found. All companies of this regiment A-K were assembled in Montgomery County Virginia, and then company F (Preston Guards) were in charge of guarding the railroads, so right from the beginning of the war, the 11th went straight to Mannasses and fought in the battle of Bull Run. Now, because he was in the Preston Guards, he may have been shipped directly down to the Centreville area and did not travel directly with the 11th infantry.

Now, get this...out of the 850 men that initially began in this regiment, only "TWO" men from Company F made it alive to the Appomattox Courthouse to surrender with General Lee, so only two things happened here... if he was in this Regiment, he either deserted, and lived, or was stationed at a different location than the rest of Company F... or... he was one of the two men in company F that surrendered with General Lee, and I have yet to find the answer to this question.

I have emailed Owen before, and him and I haven't spoke yet... I asked him what he was a PHD in, and he didn't answer, but put on the end of his name "Sabbatical" which I think means he's an ordained minister, not sure.

Thoughts?

One last thought... how can we get an initial "muster roll" for Company F when they started out in Montgomery county? ... I don't even know if one exists. I've seen full muster rolls for other companies in (A-K) in this regiment, but never any specifically for Company F. If I get that muster roll, and I see my Great Grandfather's name on it... then I will know for sure what's up. The reason I know he was in the war, is my cousin has pension information she found on him, plus I have a 1900 Clarksburg Special Veteran Census that clearly lists Prince Washington, 11th VA Infantry, Company F and was in the war for 4 years 6 months. ~