Id’d Confederate Officer’s Military Manual – “Manual of Instruction for the Volunteers and Militia of the United States” Major William Gilham, Published in 1861 – Inked and Written inside the Manual – 1^st Lt. E.F. Cowherd Adj. 13^th Va. Infantry – This well known, early war military manual is a comprehensive guidebook written by William Gilham, a colonel in the Confederate army during the American Civil War. The book was originally published in 1861 and was intended to provide guidance and instruction to the Confederate volunteers and militia who were fighting in the war. The book covers a wide range of topics related to military tactics and strategy, including the organization of troops, the use of firearms, and the construction of fortifications. It also includes detailed instructions on how to drill and train soldiers, as well as information on the proper care and maintenance of weapons and equipment. In addition to its practical advice, the Manual of Instruction also provides historical context and analysis of the military tactics used in previous wars, including the Napoleonic Wars and the American Revolution. The book is written in a clear and concise style, making it accessible to both experienced soldiers and those who are new to military service. As a result of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia Governor Henry Wise asked William Gilham to write a manual for the instruction of militia. Gilham, at the time, was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute, along with Thomas Jackson.  This specific example was published in 1861, just prior to the onset of the Civil War and Gilham’s entry into the Confederate Army.  In several areas of the beginning, frontispiece pages of the book is the name, inked and in pencil , of 1^st Lt. F. S. Cowherd, adjutant of the 13^th Va. Infantry; in the very back of the book is an old piece of paper with this penciled inscription:

“Military Tactics

1861 – 1865

Sent to

E  F  Cowherd

Adgt 13^th Va Infantry

Regiment”

On the first page of the preface is penciled the following:

“E. F. Cowherd was

Appointed (May 1862 by

Gen Cooper  a Gen ?

Confederate States)

1^st Lieut. ? A C S and

Assigned Regt Inft Vols

13^th Va”

A few pages after the above, additionally penciled is the following:

“E. F. Cowherd of Orange

County Va  entered

service of  Confederate

States as 2^nd Lieut Gordons

ville  Grays & May 1862

was appointed first Lieuten

ant ? A.C. States by

Gen S Cooper Adjutant

Gen CS and assigned

to duty with 13^th Va Infty

Organized by Gen A.P. Hill”

The book remains in overall fair to good condition, retaining all interior pages and plates. The blue cloth covered boards exhibit fading and extensive field use; both boards remain intact and attached to the book’s spine; there is some minor foxing on many pages from field use.

Edwin Festus Cowherd

Residence was not listed; years old.
Enlisted on 4/17/1861 at Gordonsville, VA as a Lieutenant.

On 4/17/1861, he was commissioned into “C” Co. Virginia 13th Infantry.
He was Surrendered on 4/9/1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA

He was listed as:

• Relieved for illness 11/20/1862 (place not stated)
• Returned 2/7/1863 (place not stated)
• Returned 1/15/1864 (place not stated) (Estimated day)
• Absent, sick 9/15/1864 (place not stated)
• Relieved, for illness 12/27/1864 (place not stated)

Promotions:

• Adjutant 4/25/1862

Born 4/2/1827
Died 7/21/1904

(Wife; Susan Latham Freeman)

After the war, he lived in Hay Farm, Orange County, VA

The “Gordonsville Grays” Company C, Virginia 13th Infantry Regiment

The Gordonsville Greys were originally organized in Orange County, Virginia in 1859 when the Governor of Virginia, John Letcher, called for 50 State Militia units to be mustered into temporary service as a consequence of John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry.  This terrifying experience showed the lack of military preparedness in Virginia.  As a result, new militia companies started springing up all over Virginia.

A Military Convention convened in January of 1860 to advise Virginia’s General Assembly on how to improve the 1858 Militia Law.  Legislation was passed on March 30, 1860 that incorporated many of the Military Council’s suggestions, particularly those in regards to supply and logistics.  Less than three months later, the Gordonsville Grays were organized and received the above flag from the ladies of the community.

The Gordonsville Greys, along with two other organized militia companies comprised of Orange County men, the Montpelier Guard and Barboursville Guards, proceeded to Harper’s Ferry and were enrolled into the service of the State of Virginia on May 9, 1861.

13th Virginia Infantry Regiment

The 13th Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in central and western Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Its commanders were Colonels George A. Goodman, Ambrose P. Hill, James B. Terrill, and James A. Walker; and Majors Charles T. Crittenden and John B. Sherrard.

The 13th Virginia completed its organization during the summer of 1861 with men from Winchester and Culpeper, Orange, Louisa, and Hampshire counties, and one company from Maryland. The original Companies B and E enlisted only for 6 months, the others for one year. At the end of that year, their service was extended for the duration of the war.

Kennedy Palmer, Co. H. 13th Va. Inft., 1861

After fighting at First Manassas and in Jackson’s Valley Campaign, it served in General Early’s, W.Smith’s, Pegram’s, and J.A. Walker’s Brigade. The 13th was prominent in the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor, then it moved with Gen. Jubal Early to the Shenandoah Valley and later was involved in the Appomattox operations.

It reported 16 casualties at Cross Keys and Port Republic, 111 at Gaines Mill, 34 at Cedar Mountain, 46 at Second Manassas, 22 at Fredericksburg, and 36 at Chancellorsville. During the Gettysburg Campaign it was left at Winchester as provost guard. The unit sustained heavy losses at the Battle of Cedar Creek and surrendered at Appomattox Court House with 10 officers and 52 men.

13th Virginia Infantry Regiment

William Gilham

William Henry Gilham (January 13, 1818 – November 16, 1872) was an American soldier, teacher, chemist, and author. A member of the faculty at Virginia Military Institute, in 1860, he wrote a military manual which was still in modern use 145 years later. He served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and became president of Southern Fertilizing Company in Richmond after the War.

Childhood, education, military service

William Henry Gilham was born in Vincennes, Indiana on January 13, 1818. his father’s family came from Virginia. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he graduated 5th in the Class of 1840.

He became a lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery in the United States Army and fought in the Seminole War in Florida. From September 1841 to August 1844, he was Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). He served in the Mexican–American War in 1846. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1852.

Virginia Military Institute

In 1846, he became a professor at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), then a recently founded state military college in Lexington, Virginia. During the next five years, he developed VMI’s departments of Chemistry and Agriculture, taught infantry tactics and served as the Commandant of Cadets. To lighten the load on Major Gilham, in 1851, VMI hired another professor, Major Thomas Jonathon Jackson, later better known as “Stonewall” Jackson, who was also a graduate of West Point, and a veteran of the conflicts in Florida and Mexico.

As a professor, Gilham was interested in geological matters. In 1857, his Report on the Soil of Powhatan County, Virginia was published in Richmond by Ritchie & Dunnavant. A copy of a request he made to the same year for the legislature to fund acquisition of “a complete collection of minerals and fossils for the use of my classes” is in the collection of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond.

Majors Gilham and Jackson taught together at VMI for the rest of the decade. In November 1859, at the request of the Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, Major Gilham led a contingent of the VMI Cadets Corps to Charles Town to provide an additional military presence for at the execution by hanging on December 2, 1859, of militant abolitionist John Brown following his raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Major Jackson was placed in command of the artillery, consisting of two howitzers manned by 21 cadets.

In response to the raid on Harper’s Ferry, Governor Wise ordered Gilham to write a manual to train volunteers and militia. Finished in the fall of 1860, it was entitled Manual of Instruction for the Volunteers and Militia of the United States and was initially published in Philadelphia.

Family life

According to VMI records, while residing in Lexington, Major Gilham and his wife Cordelia Adelaide Hayden Gilham (1826–1913) had 7 children, 3 born after moving to Virginia. Their daughter Emma Hayden Gilham (b. 1855) married William Nelson Page, a civil engineer who became co-founder of the Virginian Railway.

American Civil War

In 1861, as the American Civil War broke out, the Confederate Army had a lot of new recruits. Promoted to the rank of colonel, Gilham became the Commandant of Camp Lee, at Richmond, Virginia, the camp of instruction for thousands of Virginians. Gilham’s manual proved to be the ideal book for the training of these young men.

Col. Gilham briefly commanded a brigade in the field in 1861 and 1862, but returned to teaching at VMI. On May 15, 1864, the VMI cadets participated in the Battle of New Market. Gilham was present, but did not command the young troops during the battle. After Union troops led by Union General David Hunter raided Lexington, and burned buildings at VMI, the VMI cadets were stationed at Richmond for the remainder of the War. Major Gilham’s house, a campus landmark, was later rebuilt to original specifications after the War.

Post-war

After the War, VMI had no money to pay its instructors. Gilham went to work in Richmond for Southern Fertilizer Company, which occupied the former Confederate Libby Prison facility near Richmond’s Tobacco Row. One of the company’s products, Gilham’s Tobacco Fertilizer, was manufactured there.

William Gilham died in Vermont on November 16, 1872, aged 54.

William Gilham is said to be the son of Henry Miller Gilham and Fanny Badollet who married 1 Apr 1815 in Knox County, Indiana and the grandson of William Gilham of Woodstock, Shenandoah County, VA and later merchant of the Town of Alexandria, VA.

William GILHAM (January 13, 1818-November 16, 1872) was an American soldier, teacher, chemist, and author. A member of the faculty at Virginia Military Institute, in 1860, he wrote a military manual which was still in modern use 145 years later. He served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and became president of a fertilizer company after the War.

Childhood, education, military service
William GILHAM was born in Vincennes, Indiana, His father’s family came from Virginia. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he graduated 5th in the class of 1840.

He became a lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery in the United States Army and fought in the Seminole War in Florida. From September 1841 to August 1844, he was Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). He served in the Mexican War in 1846. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1852.

Virginia Military Institute
In 1846, he became a professor at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), then a recently-founded state military college in Lexington, Virginia. During the next five years, he developed VMI’s departments of Chemistry and Agriculture, taught infantry tactics and served as the Commandant of Cadets. To lighten the load on Major GILHAM, in 1851, VMI hired another professor, Major Thomas Jonathon Jackson, later better known as “Stonewall” Jackson, who was also a graduate of West Point, and a veteran of the conflicts in Florida and Mexico.

Majors GILHAM and Jackson taught together at VMI for the rest of the decade. In November 1859, at the request of the Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, Major GILHAM led a contingent of the VMI Cadets Corps to Charles Town to provide an additional military presence for at the execution by hanging on December 2,1859 of militant abolitionist John Brown following his raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Major Jackson was placed in command of the artillery, consisting of two howitzers manned by 21 cadets.

In response to the raid on Harper’s Ferry, Governor Wise ordered GILHAM to write a manual to train volunteers and militia. Finished in the fall of 1860, it was entitled Manual of Instruction for the Volunteers and Militia of the United States and was initially published in Philadelphia.

Family life
According to VMI records, while residing in Lexington, Major GILHAM and his wife Cordelia A. GILHAM (1826-1913) had 7 children, 3 born after moving to Virginia. Their daughter Emma Hayden GILHAM, born in 1855, was later one of Richmond’s débutantes at the city’s social “Germans” and married William Nelson Page, a civil engineer who became co-founder of the Virginian Railway. One of the GILHAM’s sons, Julius Hayden GILHAM (April 6,1852 – March 10, 1936), is buried in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, as are Emma and William Page.

American Civil War
In 1861, as the American Civil War broke out, the Confederate Army had a lot of new recruits. Promoted to the rank of colonel, GILHAM became the Commandant of Camp Lee, at Richmond, Virginia, the camp of instruction for thousands of Virginians. GILHAM’s manual proved to be the ideal book for the training of these young men.
Col. GILHAM briefly commended a brigade in the field during 1861 and 1862, but returned to teaching at VMI. On May 15, 1864, the VMI cadets participated in the Battle of New Market. GILHAM was present, but did not command the young troops during the battle. After Union troops raided Lexington, the VMI cadets were stationed at Richmond for the remainder of the War.

Post-war
After the War, VMI had no money to pay its instructors. GILHAM went to work in Richmond for Southern Fertilizer Company, which occupied the former Confederate Libby Prison facility near Richmond’s Tobacco Row.

William GILHAM died in Vermont on November 16,1872 at the age of 53. He is buried at Lexington, Virginia in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, just a few yards from his friend and colleague for whom the cemetery was renamed.