7th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment

7th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Flag of West Virginia
Active	July 16, 1861 to July 1, 1865
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Infantry
Nickname(s)	"The Bloody Seventh"
Engagements	American Civil War *Battle of Winchester *Battle of Port Republic *Battle of South Mountain *Battle of Antietam *Battle of Chancellorsville *Battle of Gettysburg *Battle of the Wilderness *Battle of Spotsylvania Court House *Battle of Cold Harbor *Siege of Petersburg

The 7th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. For much of the war, it was a part of the famed "Gibraltar Brigade" in the Army of the Potomac. It was famed primarily for two major actions, a determined charge on the Sunken Road at Antietam and a late evening counterattack on East Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg that helped push back an attack by the Louisiana Tigers.

The 7th West Virginia (originally the 7th Virginia) was organized at Grafton, Portland, Greenland, Cameron, Morgantown and Wheeling, in western Virginia Along with men from the rolling hills of Monroe County in Ohio that is due East directory across the Ohio river from Marshal and Wetzel County, WV. between July 16, 1861, and December 3, 1861. It was initially attached to the Railroad District of West Virginia, and provided guard duty for the railroads against Confederate raiders.

There first action was a skirmish with the sheriff' of Tyler County WV.The unit was to hunt down and arrest this Confederate sympothiser. The 7th fought in the 1862 Valley Campaign in Nathaniel Banks' V Corps, seeing action in a number of small engagements before fighting in the Battle of Port Republic in late May. It was assigned to the II Corps and would remain in that organization for the rest of the war. A part of Nathan Kimball's brigade during the September 1862 Maryland Campaign, the 7th West Virginia took part in the attack on the Sunken Road ("Bloody Lane") at Antietam. Following the battle, the regiment helped garrison Harper's Ferry until the end of October, when it marched through the Loudoun Valley to Falmouth, Virginia. The 7th next saw action at the Battle of Fredericksburg in the II Corps assault, and participated in the ill-fated Mud March.