The Richmond Howitzers is a military unit formed in Richmond not long after John Brown‘s raid on Harpers Ferry late in 1859. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), three companies organized as the Richmond Howitzer Battalion and served in most of the campaigns of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Howitzers reorganized in 1871 and saw active duty during both World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). It is now a unit in the Virginia National Guard.
Robert S. Garnett was a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). An 1841 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he had a distinguished career in the United States Army, including service in the Mexican War (1846–1848), when he was an advisor to the Virginia-born general and later U.S. president Zachary Taylor. Garnett also designed the Great Seal of the State of California. After resigning from the Army to join the Confederacy, Garnett led Confederate troops on July 13, 1861, at the Battle of Corrick’s Ford in what is now West Virginia. During the closing phases of that engagement, Garnett was shot and killed, becoming the first Confederate general killed during the Civil War.
