Brigader General Turner Ashby

The 7th Virginia Cavalry was originally organized by Colonel Angus W. McDonald, Sr., in the early part of 1861. The regiment spent that year operating in the neighborhood of Harpers Ferry and Romney, West Virginia. However, by the spring of 1862, the 7th Virginia Cavalry, was more frequently called "Ashby's Cavalry" although he had brought only Company A, the Mountain Rangers to it in 1861. The 7th Virginia Cavalry served with Gen. T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862. Here they were very active. In one 28 day period they fought 32 separate actions. Jackson called Ashby one of the finest partisan officers of the war.