Talk:2nd West Virginia Cavalry Regiment

Composition of regiment

I put the "citation needed" on the opening lede. The reference provided is not correct. If you are referring to the counties of Monroe and Putnam, those are OHIO counties, not West Virginia. I saw the same mistake on the WV in the Civil War website and I wrote to them about it just now. I also have the Mountaineers in Blue and Gray cd from the GT Moore Center with a history and map of counties, there are no counties of West Virginia included in their soldier count for the 2nd Cav. they show Putnam and Monroe Counties of Ohio. The recent edit "and was later supplemented by men from central, northeast and northwest counties of western Virginia." is not correct.Dubyavee (talk) 06:31, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

The regiment was formed in Ohio when it was presented to Ohio. There are no West Virginia counties that contributed. This is the map of counties from the George Tyler Moore Center of Civil War Studies in Shepherdstown.

Counties of Recruitment for 2nd West Virginia Cavalry

Putnam and Monroe are Ohio counties as you can see on the map. I will make the change to the article next week if it isn't corrected. Dubyavee (talk) 17:56, 9 May 2019 (UTC)

Dubyavee—Thank you for noticing this change. I agree with you that almost all of the original members of the regiment were from Ohio, and I believe that "and was later supplemented by men from central, northeast and northwest counties of western Virginia." should be removed. Although replacements later in the war may have come from Virginia, I do not have any documentation for that. I have the Sutton book, and page 49 of my edition does not mention replacements from anywhere. Although it cannot be used in Wikipedia, I have an ancestor that was in this regiment—and he was from Wheeling. He moved to Belmont County, Ohio, after the war. He worked at the J. H. Hobbs, Brockunier and Company glass factory in Wheeling, and that plant had a lot of men who enlisted in the Union Army. It is my ancestor's ribbon that is in the InfoBox. Although the regiment was probably 98 or 99 percent Ohio, I don't think it should be called an all–Ohio regiment. In addition, some of the men "from Ohio" had not really lived there long. Powell was Welsh and had lived in Tennessee and Wheeling. Captain Fortescue of Company I was born in Philadelphia, and lived in Indianapolis until at least 1860. Here is my solution: 1) I will remove the "later supplemented" part. There are Monroe and Putnam counties in both states. The Monroe County in Ohio makes more sense, since it is on the Ohio River. Putnam County Ohio is more "iffy". It is not along the Ohio River, and I could not find any mention of the 2nd West Virginia in the county history. I know Lang's book (page 181) says both counties were a source for recruits, and they were in West Virginia, but he probably has the wrong state for one or both. 2) If MarkMcCain can find a good source that says the regiment added recruits from what is now West Virginia, add a sentence to the end of the first paragraph under Formation and organization. It is logical that happened, but good proof is necessary. TwoScars (talk) 21:20, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

Hello TwoScars. I don't doubt that there were some West Virginian in this regiment, but I didn't think it would be in such sufficient numbers to put it in the lede. I found a few West Virginians from Boone County who enlisted in 1862. In Lang's Loyal West Virginia he mistakenly takes the information from the Sutton book and writes that volunteers from Putnam and Monroe (West Virginia) made up the remainder when it was actually those two counties in Ohio. If you look at the map I linked to above you will see that the GT Moore Center uses the Ohio Putnam County and not the West Virginia county. The difference between Confederate and Union regiments is that Confederate command filled in gaps in regiments with new recruits, this was not generally the practice in Union regiments, who used new recruits for new regiments. Of course, nothing works 100%, so that is why you can find some replacements in the 2nd WV Cav. Dubyavee (talk) 22:49, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

I agree that the mention of additional recruits does not merit being in the lead. Not good to keep repeating Lang's probable mistake. If a good citation is available, it is worthy of only one sentence, and should be at the end of the first paragraph under Formation and organization. TwoScars (talk) 16:31, 12 May 2019 (UTC)