NEW PRICING!  Halfplate Ambrotype of Lieutenant Robert Burwell Edington, Company E, 42^nd Virginia Infantry, “Dixie Grays” – Mortally Wounded at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 – This image, a half-plate relievo ambrotype, housed in a full leatherette case, is somewhat misty in appearance; it was probably taken in 1862, somewhere in Western Virginia.  Robert Edington is enumerated, in period enlistment and census records, as a 19-year-old laborer, living at Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs, Roanoke County, Virginia, in 1861.  Philip Eddington, family patriarch and grandfather of Robert B. Edington, and his family were people of wealth and influence and owned a number of slaves and several significant farms.  Philip Edington’s grandsons were members of the local military entity, “The Dixie Grays.”  Joseph Eddington, second Corporal, died in 1862 in a hospital.  James P. Eddington, a private, was wounded in 1862 at Kernstown; Robert Burwell Edington entered the Confederate Army, at an unspecified rank, in the “Dixie Grays,” at Salem, Virginia; ultimately, the company would become Company E of the 42^nd Virginia Infantry.  Edington was elected 3^rd Lieutenant of his company, on April 4, 1861.

In this striking image, Edington appears in an early war, Confederate, shell jacket, with a foot officer’s sword and what appears to be insignia on the collar and shoulders of his jacket. The single, wide branch of service stripe down his pants’ legs, are indicative of his rank as an NCO or junior officer.  In an unusual aspect of his pose, Edington displays the underside of his kepi; he is wearing an early, rectangular, militia belt plate affixed to his sword belt.  Edington’s record indicates that after his April 1862 promotion, he was in command of his company several times prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, in July 1863. Edington’s appearance in this photograph connotes his rank as that of a commissioned officer, indicating that the photograph was taken after his election to 3^rd Lieutenant, in April 1862.

The 42nd Virginia fought in western Virginia from July through December 1861; thereafter, it participated in all of the major actions under the direction of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, through the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1-3, 1863.  The regiment fought at Culps Hill, during the Battle of Gettysburg, as part of the Second Corps, under General Richard S. Ewell.  During intense fighting on July 2, Edington was severely wounded and sent to the W. Henry Montford Farm where General Allegheny Johnson’s Division Hospital had been established.  At this hospital, Edington succumbed to his wounds, on July 4.  It is conceivable that Edington’s remains were transferred to Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, in the early postwar years, although no record exists to confirm that process.

The image is housed in a full, leatherette case. This ambrotype was held in the family collection of Bedford, Virginia, chief of police James Day.

Author and researcher Gregory Coco noted that “…on the W. H. Montford farm there are five distinctive places where burials were noted, one of which was under a locust tree opposite the barn.”  Coco photographed the field where these graves were located and includes a photograph in his book Wasted Valor:  The Confederate Dead at Gettysburg.

Robert B. Edington

42nd VA Infantry

Robert B. Edington

BIRTH

31 Oct 1841

Roanoke County, Virginia, USA

DEATH

4 Jul 1863 (aged 21)

Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania, USA

BURIAL

Edington Cemetery

Roanoke County, Virginia

42nd Regiment, Virginia Infantry

OVERVIEW:

42nd Infantry Regiment, organized at Staunton, Virginia, in July, 1861, recruited its members in Henry, Floyd, Bedford, Campbell, Roanoke, Patrick, and Franklin counties. After fighting at First Kernstown and in Jackson’s Valley Campaign, the unit was assigned to J.R. Jones’ and W. Terry’s Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. It was active in many conflicts from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor, then moved with Early to the Shenandoah Valley and was involved in the Appomattox operations. This regiment reported 70 casualties at First Kernstown and totalled 750 effectives in May, 1862. It sustained no losses during the Seven Days’ Battles but had many at Cedar Mountain. There were 62 disabled at Second Manassas, 26 at Fredericksburg, and 135 at Chancellorsville. Of the 265 engaged at Gettysburg, twenty-one percent were killed, wounded, or missing. Only 1 officer and 44 men surrendered. The field officers were Colonels Jesse S. Burks, Andrew J. Deyerle, John E. Penn, and R.W.Withers; Lieutenant Colonels Daniel A. Langhorne, William Martin, and Samuel H. Saunders; and Majors P.B. Adams, Henry Lane, and Jesse M. Richardson.

The 42nd Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Brunswick County native Andrew J. Winn, 42nd Virginia Infantry, Confederate States of America. Died at Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, May 1864

History

The 42nd Virginia, organized at Staunton, Virginia, in July 1861, recruited its members in Henry, Floyd, Bedford, Campbell, Roanoke, Patrick, and Franklin counties.

After fighting at First Kernstown and in Jackson’s Valley Campaign, the unit was assigned to J.R. Jones’ and W. Terry’s Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. It was active in many conflicts from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor, then moved with Early to the Shenandoah Valley and was involved in the Appomattox operations. This regiment reported 70 casualties at First Kernstown and totaled 750 effectives in May 1862. It sustained no losses during the Seven Days’ Battles but had many at Cedar Mountain. There were 62 disabled at Second Manassas, 26 at Fredericksburg, and 135 at Chancellorsville. Of the 265 engaged at Gettysburg, twenty-one percent were killed, wounded, or missing. Only 1 officer and 44 men surrendered.^[1][2]

Field officers

The field officers were Colonels Jesse S. Burks, Andrew J. Deyerle, John E. Penn, and R. W. Withers; Lieutenant Colonels Daniel A. Langhorne, William Martin, and Samuel H. Saunders; and Majors P. B. Adams, Henry Lane, and Jesse M. Richardson.

42nd Virginia Infantry Regiment