Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
White's ‘Comanches' included leaders, men of Grabill's Company E
Article of June 18, 1998
By the time that John Henry Grabill had enlisted his company on July 30, 1862, the Civil War was well into its second year. Not officially organized until September 9, 1862, it was another three months before the company was designated as Company E, 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry on December 20, 1862. Grabill's Company was made up of men from both Page and Shenandoah counties. However, though many of the men may have been from Shenandoah at the time, several had ties either through marriage or ancestry in Page County.
Organized for service along the border, the 35th Battalion was destined to serve with the Army of Northern Virginia for long periods of time. This was a constant source of irritation, for they believed their destiny was as a raiding organization rather than regulars. However, this dissatisfaction did not prevent them from becoming good cavalrymen. Their wild charges with ear piercing yells often carried them into enemy lines, and prompted General Thomas Lafayette Rosser to give them the lasting name of the "Comanches."
When brigaded, they became an element of the famous Laurel Brigade. Commendations came from Brigadier Generals "Grumble" Jones, Thomas Rosser, and James Dearing, who led this brigade from 1862 to the end of the war. Through the mountains of Western Virginia they rode in General Jones' famous raid of 1863. The great cavalry battle of Brandy Station took the heaviest toll in men and horses suffered in any engagement. Among the men lost from Co. E were Isaac Newton Kibler, Marcus McInturff and Charles Triplett, killed; Franklin Clem, Charles B. Fristoe, Charles Giddings, and T. Honer, wounded; and Captain John Grabill, Isaiah Clem, George Duncan, Thomas J. Handright, John A. Pierson, Jacob F. Rudassiller, Thomas Rudassiller, William Walters, and James W. T. Warren captured.
On June 26, White's Battalion, reduced to no more than 200 men, was ordered to take the lead for an advance of General John B. Gordon's infantry brigade on the little crossroads town of Gettysburg. As the battalion approached the quiet town, Page County native Lieutenant Harrison Monroe Strickler and Co. E, led the way, descending the grade to marsh Creek. Immediately in their path was the Adam's County Federal Cavalry and the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment. With a blood curling scream, the Comanches, with Strickler and Co. E in the front, charged down upon the enemy, creating a route. With Private Albert Bowers riding "boot to boot"with Strickler, others in the charge included John W. Grove, Warfield Yates, Dallas Slusher, John H. Flinn, John Shenk, and John P. Mauck. In what might have been a bloody scenario, many of the Pennsylvanians fled the scene or threw down their arms asking for quarter.
Following the return from Gettysburg, Company E, the same company which had lead the way into the town, acted as the rearguard, and were among the last to cross the Potomac into Virginia.
The 35th continued the war in the years to come, fighting at the battle of the Wilderness, Trevillians Station, the "Beefsteak Raid," and in efforts to stop Sheridan's "barn burners" in the Shenandoah Valley. From Petersburg to High Bridge, the 35th acted as the rearguard to Lee's dying army. Refusing to surrender at Appomattox, the Cavalry rode out in a wild charge reminiscent of their earlier days.
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