Roger Preston Chew was only 19 years old, Milton Rouse 17 years old, and James Thomson 18 years old the day the three appeared before their former VMI artillery instructor, Col. Thomas J. Jackson, to offer their services as volunteers in the new army of the Confederate States of America. At the suggestion of Turner Ashby, flamboyant commander of Jackson’s cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley, the three were commissioned, respectively, Captain, First Lieutenant, and Second Lieutenant of an artillery battery that would revolutionize the tactics of the American Civil War.

Chew’s Battery, armed with an imported British Blakely rifled cannon, a 12-pounder smoothbore and a 3-inch iron rifle, became the first of several horse artillery batteries organized and employed by Confederate cavalry commanders. By the time the war ended, Chew’s Battery enjoyed a reputation for valor second to no other battery in Confederate service.

As Jennings Cropper Wise said of them in his landmark book, The Long Arm of Lee, "The clatter of its horses’ feet, the rumble of its guns upon the turnpike, the shriek of its shells, were sounds familiar to every resident of the Valley from the Potomac to Staunton, and it probably took part in more engagements than any other battery in the war, North or South."

Formed by special order of the Confederate Government on November 11, 1861 at Flowing Spring, VA., the battery was commanded from the start by Captain Chew, a native of Loudoun County who grew up in Charlestown, Va. It was armed at the beginning with a 3-inch Ordnance Rifle, a 12-pounder bronze smoothbore howitzer and an imported 3.1 inch Blakely Rifle. It was the Blakely Rifle that gave Chew’s Battery its fame in the Valley. Friend and foe alike, when hearing its unique crack when fired, would know that both Ashby and Chew were nearby. As Ashby’s cavalry gained its fame, it was given the sobriquet; "Laurel Brigade." Chew’s Battery was included as being a member of that illustrious brigade from the battery’s formation, until the end of the war.

For additional information regarding the history of this famous battery, you may want to read Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery, by George M. Neese.  Neese was a gunner in Chew's Battery for the bulk of its service to the Confederacy.  Please visit our Photo Gallery for pictures of original members of this unit.