Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/79

 Dahlgren's Raid. 67

Several men were knocked down and bruised in the 'onrush of Federal troopers who could not control their horses. Dahlgren's loss in killed and wounded, in the charge, was about forty. Ten or more of his men were found dead on the field in a space not more than thirty yards square the next morning.. Several pris- oners were taken. For its gallantry at Hick's Farm the bat- talion was commended in official reports, was raised to a regi- ment. Third Regiment Troops, for local defense, and Captain McAnerney was promoted colonel and assigned to its command.

COMPANY OF BOYS.

But the fiftieth anniversary of Hick's Farm has another in- terest for the people of Richmond, a continued and continuing interest, it may be said. That interest centres in the history of Richmond's boy company. Save for this company, the battalion was composed largely of men from all parts of the South, who had been retired from active service on account of wounds or other disabilities, and detailed in the departments. Captain Mc- Anerney was among the number, and these department clerks were virtually all veterans. The battalion had no connection with the militia organizations or other reserves, nor had the regiment to which it was enlarged. Company G. as to person- nel, was in a sense the successor of the "Junior Volunteers," a company of striplings formed just before the war, who were armed with "cut-ofif" carbines, drilled at the State armory, and whose first service was in the "Pawnee War." The carbines were "cut ofif" by order of Governor Wise, so as to accommodate them to the youth and size of the juniors. Company G was organized in July, 1863, and because none of its members were old enough to be subject to military duty, the government re- quired "individual" receipts for its new arms, as the following copy from the autograph receipt paper will show :

Headquarters Co. G, Third B. L. D.

Richmond, October. 1863. We, the undersigned members of Company G, do hereby