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The History of the
Shriver
Greys
In May of 1861, Mr. Daniel Shriver, a Wheeling businessman, outfitted
64 men to fight for the Confederate States of America. The Majority of
these men were from the Northern Panhandle of Virginia, now West
Virginia. This unit would be known as the Shriver Greys. As they left
on that day in May of 1861, little did they know that only nine would
return to their homes after the war.
Formation of the 27th Virginia Infantry, Company G - "Shriver Greys"
Excerpt from: 27th Virginia Infantry,
by Lowell Reidenbaugh,
First Edition, 1993, Virginia Regimental Histories Series, H. E.
Howard, Inc.
To the Shriver Greys of Wheeling, enlistment in the Confederate army
was fraught with complexities and secrecy. In a city of 16,000, where
European immigrants constituted one-third of the population and formed
a fiercely loyal nucleus of Union sympathy, activities of prospective
Confederates were cloaked in Stygian darkness.
The Greys, named for their captain, Daniel McKeloran Shriver,
represented some of the finest families of Wheeling. Sixty-four in
number, they drilled at night to conceal their purpose and, when faced
with the need for obtaining gray uniforms, they resorted to their best
cloak-and-dagger furtiveness. According to one account::
...they organized secretly and few knew that the organization was being
made until they were ready to leave for the front. The first problem
that they were required to solve was the problem of clothes. They
wanted military clothes, and they wanted them well made. The best
cutter in Wheeling was James Warden, but he was not in sympathy with
the South. These young men decided to try and engage him, and so it was
arranged that they would meet in a room in the house in North Wheeling,
which was across the street from the home of [Squire] Hanson Phillips.
When the hour arrived and Mr. Warden was ushered into this gathering he
instantly thought that they were preparing for some handsome wedding.
He was asked to take the measurements of each one, and when all of this
was done he began to ask about the cloth from which they were to be
cut. Then it was that the bolts of gray, which was being used by the
southern army, were produced and he knew! He had given his word that
the suits would be ready and he kept it; although he was sworn to
secrecy...
Warden later served in the Union army, but his son reported that he
"always had a warm feeling for the Shriver Grays."
Originally, the Grays planned to ride the Baltimore and Ohio cars to
Harpers Ferry, but when the Federals blocked that rail line, the Grays
were forced to take an alternate route. The company departed on May 17,
taking the last boat out of Wheeling that was not required to undergo
military inspection. A short distance from the wharf the men sailed
past the tents of Federals drilling on Wheeling Island. The Grays
passed a Yankee regiment at Parkersburg and another at Galipolis
without being challenged. "But when our boat turned into the Kanawha,"
related one account. “Quite a change was seen. Companies were being
banded to resist the common enemy."
From Charleston the Grays moved on to Gauley Bridge. From there they
marched overland to Lewisburg, thence into the Shenandoah Valley and
northward to Harpers Ferry where they became Company G of the 27th
Virginia. Their circuitous route covered 298 miles.
Daniel M. Shriver was the 25-year-old scion of a socially prominent
Wheeling family engaged in the wholesale liquor trade. From captain, he
rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he resigned in 1863 to
take a seat in the Virginia Legislature. Within months, it appears,
Shriver tired of legislative agendas and yearned for a return to armed
conflict. He proposed to raise a regiment of cavalry behind enemy lines
in Northwestern Virginia, for which Shriver thought he should be
granted a commission as colonel.
Charles W. Russell, a Congressman from the Wheeling district, presented
Shriver's application to James A. Seddon, the Secretary of War, in
which it was pointed out that "The authority without a commission will
not enable him to raise a regiment for, although he is a gentleman of
property at home, he has not now the means necessary to defray the
expense of raising a regiment."
President Jefferson Davis was willing to grant a colonelcy as well as
the authority that Shriver sought. He attached stringent restrictions,
however. Davis informed Shriver he would approve the request on
"condition that it [the colonelcy] shall become vacant at the end of
sixty days unless he raises a regiment within that time and that the
counties from which the regiment is to be raised shall be specified."
The decision dealt a crushing blow to Shriver, who had equipped much of
the infantry company at his own expense. A letter from Russell to
Seddon in December 1863 informed the secretary that "Col. Shriver
thinks that, as these restrictions (especially as to time) are unusual
and are inconsistent with the expectation that a regiment will be
raised, he cannot with propriety accept the proposed commission. He
authorizes me respectfully to inform you that it is unnecessary to
proceed further with the matter."
Shriver, who had been hospitalized because of illness several times in
the early stages of the war and was wounded at Port Republic in June
1862, died at the home of William Russell near Wheeling in July 1865.
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