ate service at Staunton,
Virginia, on May 11, and at once ordered to Harper's Ferry, where it
received two more guns. After the First Brigade was organized, under
Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, the Rockbridge Artillery was assigned to it, and
continued a component part of the Stonewall Brigade, in touch with and
occupying the same positions with it in all its battles and skirmishes
up to Sharpsburg.

Upon the reorganization of the artillery, in October, 1862, the battery
was assigned to the First Regiment Virginia Artillery, under the command
of Col. J. Thompson Brown, and continued with it till the close of the
war. The first fight it was engaged in, and which made a part of its
history, occurred July 2 near Hainesville, when General Patterson
crossed the Potomac and advanced on Winchester. But one piece was
engaged, and this fired the first shot from a Confederate gun in the
Shenandoah Valley.

The battery had five captains from first to last: First, John
McCausland, afterward brigadier-general of cavalry; second, Rev. Wm. N.
Pendleton, D. D., in command from May 1, 1861, until after the first
battle of Manassas, afterward brigadier-general and chief of artillery
in the Army of Northern Virginia; third, Wm. McLaughlin, afterward
lieutenant-colonel of artillery, in command until April 2, 1862; fourth,
Wm. T. Poague, afterward lieutenant-colonel of artillery, Army of
Northern Virginia, in command until after the first battle of
Fredericksburg; fifth, Archibald Graham, from that time until the
surrender at Appomattox, at which place ninety-three men and officers
laid down their arms.

This company had the reputation of being one of the finest companies in
the service. So high was the intellectual quality of the men that
forty-five were commissioned as officers and assigned to other companies
in the service. Many of them reached high distinction. At no time during
the war did this company want for recruits, but it was so popular that
it always had a list from which it could fill its ranks, which were
sometimes depleted by its heavy casualties and numerous promotions from
its roster.

The following officers and men were mustered into the service of the
Confederate States at Staunton, Virginia, on the 11th day of May, 1861:

*Captain W. N. Pendleton; brigadier-general, chief of artillery A. N. V.;
paroled at Appomattox.

*First Lieutenant J. B. Brockenbrough; wounded at first Manassas;
captain Baltimore Artillery, major of