Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/642

596 in the fight, no labor was too fatiguing and no peril too hazardous for his devoted and intrepid spirit. On April 23, 1861, he left home with his well-drilled and disciplined company, and proceeded to Richmond, where his men were mustered into the service of Virginia, as Company G of the Eleventh Virginia infantry, on the following day. Of this regiment, composed of four Lynchburg companies and commands from other Virginia towns, he was placed in command as colonel, a few days later. He took his regiment to camp at Manassas, where it joined the brigade of General Longstreet. In the fight at Blackburn's ford the regiment was distinguished, and Colonel Garland was mentioned by General Longstreet, with others, as having "displayed more coolness and energy than is usual amongst veterans of the old service." In the famous battle of the 21st, the regiment was intended to take an active part, but the Federal flank movement caused the fight to open in another quarter. After the engagement Colonel Garland was detailed to collect the spoil of battle on the field. In the fight at Dranesville, in December, he was reported as behaving with great coolness. In the absence of orders he held his line until the rest of the Confederate force was entirely withdrawn from the field. In February, 1862, he was commended by General Johnston as fully competent to command a brigade. In March he moved with his regiment to the Peninsula, where the brigade came under the command of A. P. Hill. In the battle of Williamsburg, the most severe loss was sustained by the Eleventh regiment, and Hill reported that "Colonel Garland, though wounded early in the action, refused to leave the field, and continued to lead his regiment until the battle was over, and his example had a most happy effect in showing his men how to win the battle." Immediately after this Garland was promoted brigadier-general, and was assigned to the command of a brigade of D. H. Hill's division, which after Seven Pines was composed of the Fifth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-third North Carolina regiments. He was distinguished for gallant conduct in the heat of the fight at Seven Pines; at Gaines' Mill, asked permission and made a flank attack at an opportune juncture, which decided the fate of the day, his men cheering and charging and driving the enemy ; and he was in the attacking columns