Look carefully or you will miss this memorial Botetourt Artillary Monument Assn CSA Memorial
US-11
Buchanan, Botetourt County
"Erected by
In commemoration of the deeds and services of the Buchanan Company, organized Oct. 1859, as the Mountain Rifles
Virginia Volunteers. Enlisted May 1861, in the Confederate States Army, for twelve months, as Co. I-H-28 Regiment
Virginia Infantry. Reenlisted Nov 1861, for the war, as Anderson's Battery Light Artillary. Renamed March 1863, as
The Botetourt Artillary."
"To our loving, self-sacrificing, Confederate women"
"To our comrades who have died since the war, and to the survivors of our company"
"To our officers and men who were killed in battle, and who died from wounds and disease during the war"
The Botetourt Artillary Monument Association
A.D. 1902
This small memorial holds an important story, one that finds root in the US Constitution. After John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry the community leaders of Buchanan felt it necessary to form a Militia unit. It was created, staffed by locals, and accepted by the Virginia legislature as a legal entity in 1859.
In early May of 1861, when Virginia secceded the 76 men of the militia marched off to war; without uniforms or significant supplies, to join with other militia units under the command of Colonel Jubal Early. Just 45 days later only 56 men were left, the others had succumbed to illness, disease, or were otherwise unfit for duty. A month later they engaged Union forces at Bull Run and acquitted themselves well. They even captured one of the commanders of the 1st Michigan Infantry.
The unit was reassigned, renamed, and reinforced during that fall. Throughout the war the Botetourt Artillary was employed wherever needed. They lost 41 of their 62 killed in one engagement, at the seige of Vicksburg. And they were still fighting nearly to the last days but ceased as an effective forced when most were captured just before General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse.
Yes, the memorial may be small and oddly placed, but I suspect the locals want it that way. It makes old Yankees stop and ask questions about the men that mustered and marched to war. Oh, could a group of locals form a militia today if they felt it were necessary for the protection of their hometown? NO. We granted ourselves that right in the Constitution of The United States of America, but in reality those 76 men would today be branded as malcontents and probably arrested for federal firearms violations.
