LOVE LIVE PRAY THINK DARE
WAR BETWEEN THE STATES
In October 1861, Elijah was home on leave from Lieutenant Colonel Turner Ashby's 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment when a battle broke out
at Ball's Bluff between General Charles P. Stone's Union forces and Confederate forces that were screening Leesburg. He volunteered his
services to then Colonel Nathan "Shanks" Evans and acted as a courier, scout, and "all-purpose" soldier. Elijah was
instrumental in the capture of over 300 Union troops trapped below the bluffs. He was even mentioned by name in the after-action reports
of three regiments: the 17th Mississippi Infantry, the 8th Virginia Infantry, and this one from Jenifer's Cavalry
...Mr. White, of Colonel Ashby's cavalry, volunteered his services during the day. I
never witnessed more coolness and courage than the young man displayed, being exposed to the heaviest fire of the enemy. He rode in front
of a part of the Seventeenth Mississippi, ordering and encouraging the men.
Soon afterward, Elijah accepted a captaincy in the Confederacy's Provisional Army and
worked to raise a small company of couriers between Leesburg and Winchester. Through continued recruitment, his command achieved full
strength by March 1862, and was then attached to General Richard Ewell's headquarters for duty with General Thomas J. "Stonewall"
Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and through the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond.
Since General Ewell was wounded at the Battle of Second Manassas, General Alexander R. Lawton became the new division commander and Captain
White's men served as the headquarters bodyguard. Early September 1862 found Captain White and his men on familiar ground in Frederick,
Maryland. As a native Marylander, Elijah felt he could be very effective at recruitment by issuing the following proclamation about town:
Marylanders to the Rescue!
I am a Marylander! I have been in the service eighteen months, opposing the tyrrany which would have made of the South a subjugated and
ruined country. I come to Maryland with the Southern army to do what I can to carry her where she belongs, to the Southern Confederacy.
I want Marylanders to join me. I am authorized to raise a regiment of Maryland cavalry. I have no recruiting office. I can be found at Gen.
Lawton's headquarters, where I will be happy to receive recruits. Come at once, or make up your minds to be slaves to the Northern deception
forever.
E.V. White
Captain, Commanding Gen. Lawton's Body-guard
It is unknown if Captain White’s recruitment efforts produced any immediate success, but it
has been well documented that General Robert E. Lee did not achieve the large numbers of Maryland recruits that he had hoped for during this
campaign. Soon afterward, though, Captain White and his men were ordered back to Loudoun County, Virginia, to report on Union activities. Then
during the Battle of Sharpsburg (September 17, 1862), Captain White’s men had a brush with Union General Kilpatrick’s cavalry on the outskirts
of Leesburg. White leading his men in the initial charge, Elijah was struck in the shoulder blade by a bullet which lodged in the base of his
throat. The Union forces soon withdrew and Elijah was taken to a nearby house for medical treatment. Due to the constant threat of capture, he
was moved to several different houses and eventually transferred to a house in nearby Clark County, where his wife Elizabeth tended to him during
his recuperation.
Recruits continued to flock to Captain White’s command including a company-sized unit made up of men from Poolesville, upper Montgomery County,
and lower Frederick County and was commanded by Captain George W. Chiswell of Poolesville. These men were called “Chiswell’s Exile Band” but later
became Company B under Captain White’s command. On October 28, 1862, White’s battalion-sized unit was mustered into the Army of Northern Virginia
as the 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry by fellow Marylander Colonel Bradley T. Johnson and White was promoted to Major and retained command of the
battalion. The battalion was then attached to General William E. "Grumble" Jones’ Cavalry command and its duty was to attack Union forces
throughout Loudoun County. In November 1862, the 35th Battalion clashed with Union cavalry at Snickers Gap, Virginia, and received praise from J.E.B.
Stuart and Stonewall Jackson as a result. There were also repeated raids into Montgomery County, especially in Poolesville, which resulted in the
capture of Union supplies including 43 Union horses and the destruction of those supplies which could not be carried back across the Potomac. The
Union’s inability to prevent these raids were blamed on the family and friends of the 35th that had remained around Poolesville, including Major
White’s father and niece who were suspected of firing off signal rockets to warn the Confederate troops.
On February 4, 1863, White was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and the 35th Battalion had increased to six companies by this time. The Battalion was
then ordered to northwestern Virginia (now West Virginia) and participated in the month-long Jones-Imboden Raid against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Fights against Union troops broke out at Rowlesburg, Morgantown, Fairmont, and a four-hour battle at Greenland Gap in which White’s battalion charged
the Union-held church building and also forced the surrender of several Union troops in nearby cabins.
Lieutenant Colonel White’s battalion along with General "Grumble" Jones’ brigade was ordered to Culpeper County to participate in General
J.E.B. Stuart’s grand reviews. They were thus on hand for the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, where White led his men in successive charges,
especially against the 6th New York Artillery. White stated in his report of the battle: "There was no demand for a surrender or offer of one
until nearly all the men, with many of their horses, were either killed or wounded." About 90 men, officers and enlisted, of the 35th Battalion
were killed, wounded, or missing with White receiving a painful wound. Their efforts were commended in General Stuart’s after-action report.
During the Gettysburg Campaign, Lieutenant Colonel White’s battalion was specifically detached from "Grumble" Jones to help provide
cavalry support for General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. They also served as the rear guard for the entire army during the retreat and were
commended by General Jubal Early in his after-action report.
After the Gettysburg Campaign, Lieutenant Colonel White and his battalion resumed their raids on Union forces in the Poolesville area. Towards
the end of 1863, the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia was reorganized and the 35th Battalion was placed in the famed &qout;Laurel
Brigade" under Major General Wade Hampton’s First Cavalry Division. When Union General George G. Meade’s forces crossed the Rapidan River
west of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the 35th Battalion charged the Union troops with such ferocity that brigade commander General Thomas L. Rosser
dubbed them the "Comanches."
White and his men participated in two additional large-scale raids in western Virginia and some recruiting in Loudoun County, but otherwise
remained with the Army of Northern Virginia during the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania and the 10-month siege of Petersburg. They
also fought against Union General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry at Trevilian Station in June 1864 and participated in the "Great Beefsteak Raid"
in September where 3,000 heads of cattle were captured behind Union lines and herded back to the Confederate lines.
Meanwhile, back at home in July 1864, Elijah White’s wife Elizabeth and three female friends from Leesburg were arrested by Union officials
while visiting relatives in Montgomery County, Maryland. The ladies were imprisoned at Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC for three or four
weeks. Upon their return to Virginia, by way of Edwards Ferry, the ladies stood "in the ferry skiff in order to conceal the contraband
goods strung under their hoop skirts."
In late 1864, General Rosser, commander of the Laurel Brigade, was promoted and even though the brigade command went to Brigadier General
James Dearing, Lieutenant Colonel White received the following recommendation from Virginia Governor John Letcher and Judge John W.
Brockenborough to President Jefferson Davis:
We take great pleasure in recommending Colonel Elijah V. White as a most fitting successor
to the gallant General Thomas L. Rosser to the command of the ‘Laurel Brigade.’ We are well aware that but little weight is generally attached
to a recommendation, by mere civilians, of military men for promotion; yet we are so strongly impressed with the conviction of Colonel White’s
peculiar fitness for the command of this distinguished brigade that we cannot forbear to place our estimate of his qualifications on the record.
The chivalric courage and dashing gallantry of this battle-scarred hero, combined, as we are persuaded, with quickness of apprehension and
coolness in action, inspiring perfect and enthusiastic confidence in the troops under his command, seem to point him out as a worthy successor
of the noble Rosser.
In April 1865, after Petersburg and Richmond fell, Lieutenant Colonel White and his
battalion helped to cover the edges of Lee’s retreating army and came under constant fire. Then at High Bridge on April 6, General Dearing
had a face-to-face encounter with Union General Theodore Read and fell mortally wounded. Before he died, however, General Dearing requested
that White take command of the Laurel Brigade. Although he did take temporary command for the final few days of the war, White was never
promoted to brigadier general. White also refused to surrender at Appomattox and was able to lead the Laurel Brigade away from the surrounding
Union troops to meet up with the remnants of General Rosser’s cavalry division already in Lynchburg. Once there, White disbanded the brigade
and the troops received their paroles from Union provost marshals as they drifted home. Lieutenant Colonel White did not sign his parole in
Leesburg until May 8, and he finally signed his oath of allegiance at Harpers Ferry on May 25.
