John H. Worsham

Private John H. Worhsam

History of F Company, Richmond, Va., 21st Regiment Virginia Infantry

Quick Facts

Significance:

Confederate soldier

Date of Birth:

July 8, 1839

Place of Death:

Richmond, Virginia

Date of Death:

September 19, 1920

Place of Burial:

Richmond, Virginia

Cemetery Name:

Hollywood Cemetery

Worsham, a Confederate soldier, fought in both the 1862 and 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaigns. His post-war narrative “One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry” gives vivid detail of soldier life, including the looting of US camps during the Battle of Cedar Creek. 

Civil War Service

John Worsham enlisted in the 21st Virginia Infantry on April 21, 1861. The regiment fought with General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in all the battles of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign. Over the next few years Worsham would participate in almost all of the other major eastern theater battles, including Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Overland campaign.

Return to the Valley

As part of General Jubal Early's Army of the Valley District, Worsham returned to the Shenandoah Valley in the summer of 1864. He fought at the Battle of Monocacy. During the Third Battle of Winchester, Worsham received a wound that caused lifelong disability. Although he missed the Battle of Cedar Creek, Worsham still wrote about it in his published narrative One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry: His Experience and What He Saw During the War 1861 - 1865. 

Looting at Cedar Creek

Worsham's detailed narrative gives a vivid account of life as a Confederate soldier.
Looting became one of the key elements of the fatal halt narrative that emerged several decades after the war. Describing the situation October 19, 1864, he wrote:

"The world will never know the extreme poverty of the Confederate soldier at this time. Hundreds of men who were in charge and who captured the enemy’s works were barefooted. Every one of them was ragged. Many had on everything they had, and none had eaten a square meal for weeks. As they passed through Sheridan’s camp, a great temptation was thrown in their way. Many of the tents were open, and in plain sight were rations, shoes, overcoats, and blankets. The fighting continued farther and farther, yet some of the men stopped. They secured well-filled haversacks and, as they investigated the contents, the temptation to stop and eat was too great. Since most of them had had nothing to eat since the evening before, they yielded. While some tried on shoes, others put on warm pants in place of tattered ones. Still others got overcoats and blankets, articles so much needed for the coming cold. They had already experienced several biting frosts to remind them of the winter near at hand."

See History 

Several Civil War items that belonged to Worsham are on exhibit at the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum in Winchester. See his battle-scarred uniform, chess pieces, pocket watch, wartime notebook, and more.