The Fourth Alabama Painting by Don Troiani

First Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah

Lieutenant Colonel J Echols

Lieutenant Colonel J Echols, commanding the 27th Virginia Infantry

Twenty-seventh Virginia Infantry
Seven companies attached on 21 July, 1861

COLONEL W W GORDAN
LIEUTENANT COLONEL J ECHOLS
Commanding the regiment on 21 July, 1861, as Colonel W W Gordan was suffering from illness and was only officially in command until he resigned in October, 1861, due to ill health.

MAJOR A J GRIGSBY

Company A Alleghany Light Infantry: CAPT. T MCALLISTER
Transferred from the 13th Virginia Infantry on 30 May, 1861. In October the company was designated the Alleghany Artillery or Carpenter's Battery and the failure of Captain T McAllister's health, devolved the captaincy to First Lieutenant J Carpenter.

As Captain J Carpenter was a former artillery student at the Virginia Military Institute the company was converted to artillery with appproximately 80 men and four 6 pounder guns from the foundry at Tredegar works in Richmond, Virginia.

Company B Virginia Hibernians: CAPT. H H ROBERTSON
Company C Alleghany Rifles: CAPT. L P HOLLOWAY
Originally assigned to the 2nd Virginia Infantry but was transferred on 31 May, 1861.
Company D Monroe Guard: CAPT. H S TIFFANY
Company E Greenbrier or Lewisburg Rifles: CAPT. R F DENNIS
Originally assigned to the 5th Virginia Infantry but was transferred on 15 May, 1861.
Company F Greenbrier Sharpshooters: CAPT. S W BROWN
Assigned to the regiment in June 1861. Drillmaster C R Norris, Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets, was acting captain as Captain S W Brown was discharged due to typhoid fever prior to 21 July, 1861.
Company G Shriver Greys: CAPT. D M SHRIVER
Assigned to the regiment on 1 May, 1861.
Company H (1st) Old Dominion Greys: CAPT. W SHERRARD
Disbanded on 10 June, 1861 when it failed to attain minimum strength.
Company H (2nd) Rockbridge Rifles: CAPT. S H LETCHER
Transferred from the 4th Virginia Infantry, Company K, after 21 July, 1861.

Sources

"Norris and Cadet Charles C Wight were assigned to instruct the 27th Virginia Infantry."

"In its ranks as acting volunteer captains were Cadets Norris, Hempstead, Wight, and Moffett."

The young lions: Confederate cadets at war, by James Lee Conrad

"While Gordon was the official commander of the regiment until he resigned in October 1861, the actual command devolved upon Lieutenant Colonel J Echols, the 33 year old church elder who had organized the Monroe Guards and been a member of the Virginia Assembly that passed the ordinance of secession."

"The list of fatalities also included the name of C R Norris, acting captain of a company in the 27th Virginia Infantry on its fateful charge down Henry House Hill."

The Virginia Regimental Histories Series, Twenty-seventh Virginia Infantry, First Edition, No.476 of 1000, by L Reidenbaugh

A Guide to Virginia Military Organisations 1861–1865, Revised Second Edition by I A Wallace, Jr.

Notes

The 27th Virginia Infantry was mustered in Confederate service on 1 July, 1861.

At 1 AM on 18 July, 1861, the War Department at Richmond ordered General J E Johnston to move the Army of the Shenandoah from Winchester to Manassas Junction. Brigadier General T J Jackson's brigade was first to take the road and marched to Piedmont Station arriving at 6 AM on 19 July. The 27th Virginia Infantry boarded the train of freight and cattle cars arriving at Manassas Junction near sunset and went into camp in a pine thicket near Blackburn's Ford the night of 19 July.

On 25 July 1861, the Army of the Shenandoah was reorganised and 27th Virginia Infantry was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Corps, Army of the Shenandoah, under the command of Brigadier General T J Jackson.