The 8th Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

 raised in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 for service in the Confederate States Army

Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia

Army of Northern Virginia

The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...

.

Virginia’s 8th Cavalry Regiment was organized early in 1862 with nine companies but increased its number to eleven to July. Many of the men were recruited in Smyth, Nelson, Kanawha, and Tazewell counties.

The unit confronted the Union in western Virginia, fought in East Tennessee then returned to western Virginia. Later it participated in Early's Shenandoah Valley operations and the Appomattox Campaign.

This regiment contained 225 effectives in April, 1864. However, none were included in the surrender at Appomattox because it had cut through the Federal lines and disbanded. The field officers were Colonels James M. Corns and Walter H. Jenifer; Lieutenant Colonels Thomas P. Bowen, A.F. Cook, Henry Fitzhugh, and Albert G. Jenkins

Albert G. Jenkins

Albert Gallatin Jenkins was an attorney, planter, representative to the United States Congress and First Confederate Congress, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War...

; and Major P.M. Edmondson.

Former U.S. Congressman and Confederate Congressman Albert Jenkins recruited one of the unit's companies as a company of partisan rangers, before it was attached to the regiment and he became commanding officer of the 8th Virginia. He was killed at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain

Battle of Cloyd's Mountain

The Battle of Cloyd's Mountain was a Union victory in western Virginia in 1864 that allowed the Union forces to destroy the last railroad connecting Tennessee to Virginia.-Background:...