This article appeared in the June 9, 2010 Wytheville Enterprise:

Drive under way to build Civil War monument

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

When James Christman was a child, his grandfather told him about the family’s participation in the Civil War. That history was lost on him until a recent visit to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in Georgia.
The Grayson County resident came away with a mission to place a monument on the battlefield in honor of the 63rd and 54th Virginia Infantry Regiment, which joined Tennessee’s Confederate troops to fight a major battle at Chickamauga, Ga. Christman’s relatives were part of the regiments whose members were from Carroll, Floyd, Grayson, Smyth, Wythe, Pulaski and Montgomery counties.
“I looked at all the monuments on the battlefield and there was no marker for the 54th or the 63rd regiment,” said Christman, a paramedic with the Wythe County Rescue Squad. “When I got home, I got to thinking about it. Other states had markers but Virginia didn’t. I called back and talked to a ranger at the national park about what had to be done.”
Library of Virginia records, he said, indicated a monument was approved in 1895 but appropriation committees declined funding three times. After talking to the director of tourism at Chicamauga, Christman learned Virginia had to grant permission to the national park service for the monument.
He then contacted Delegate Bill Carrico, who introduced Joint House Resolution 275, which passed about three weeks ago. Knowing there were no state appropriations for the estimated $60,000 project, Christman formed the 63rd and 54th Virginia Military Descendants Association.
“Our hope for the project is for all descendants of these veterans to pull together to set up the monument,” Christman said. “Any descendant of either regiment can join for a one-time $50 membership fee. All the money goes to building the monument.”
He pointed out he and the group’s board of directors are all volunteers. The nonprofit organization has a website at 63rdand54thvainf.com.
“We hope to have the monument erected on the battlefield park in time for the 150th anniversary celebration in 2013,” Christman noted.
According to him, the 63rd Virginia Infantry Regiment was made up of men from Carroll, Grayson and Wythe counties and from Sullivan County, Tenn., and Monroe County, W.Va. “The Royal Blues,” a company from Floyd County, also were assigned to the regiment.
The 63rd, Christman stated, was active throughout Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky before becoming part of the Army of Tennessee in August 1863. The regiment remained there until the end of the Civil War, he said.
The 54th Virginia Infantry Regiment, according to Christman, was mustered into service on Sept. 6, 1861. It was composed of men from Carroll, Floyd, Montgomery and Pulaski counties along with the Roanoke Guards, he reported.
Christman noted the regiment served throughout Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia for their first two years of service before becoming part of the Army of Tennessee in August 1863. He said the group stayed there until the end of the war.
The two regiments, Christman said, first saw action with the Army of Tennessee at Chicamauga, Ga., in September 1863. Heavy losses of both regiments resulted in combining them to form the 54th Virginia Infantry Battalion on April 9, 1865, he reported.
“We are authorized through the Joint Resolution which Delegate Carrico introduced,” Christman commented, “to be authorized by the state to be the state agent in designing, funding and building the monument. A lot of work has taken place and a lot more work will have to be done. We’ve got three years to do this which is not a long time. It’s a good project – a well-deserved project for the regiment. I have not found any monument in honor of the regiments anywhere.”
An account for the organization is at Grayson National Bank.
Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .