When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the residents of Manchester raised a company of infantry and an artillery battery for service in the Confederate army. The local militia mustered into Confederate service as Company I, Sixth Virginia Infantry, the ‘Manchester Grays’ under the command of Captain John S. Whitworth. Citizens of the city formed a battery of artillery, as well, The Manchester Artillery, commanded by Captain William R. Weisiger.
The Sixth Virginia participated in the capture of Norfolk in May 1861, but was withdrawn when the city fell to Union forces a year later. The Sixth served for the rest of the war in William Mahone’s brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia, seeing action from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor. The regiment fought in the Petersburg trenches, where Mahone rallied his men to counterattack following the Union army’s detonation of a mine near Blandford Church during the Battle of the Crater. Mahone was promoted to Major General for this action, and Brigadier General Daniel Weisiger of Petersburg assumed his former command. The Sixth Virginia surrendered six officers and one hundred and ten men at Appomattox on April 12th, 1865.
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