1802) and Richmond (a militia unit formed in 1844). In March 1862, before this regiment's combat service began, many men transferred from the Lafayette Guards into the new Petersburg Artillery (under Captain Branch), so that unit received many recruits from rural Patrick County in southwest Virginia. The final Petersburg-recruited company, "Archer's Rifles" was raised in May 1861 by Fletcher H. Archer, who had commanded a volunteer company in the Mexican War. Archer soon became lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, while his company became Company K of the 12th Virginia Infantry. The regiment was unusual in the Confederate army as a whole, because most of its members were educated and from cities, only Companies F and I were from rural counties (both served by a railroad line from Petersburg). The Huger Grays (Company F) and Meherrin Grays (Company I) were recruited mainly from Greensville and Brunswick Counties. The Richmond Grays had been Company A of the 1st Virginia Infantry, but became Company G of the 12th Virginia on July 12, 1861. The oldest militia volunteers in Norfolk (founded in 1802), the Norfolk Junior Volunteers enlisted on April 19, 1861, for one year. When their home city fell to the Union Army & Navy in 1862, many deserted and rejoined their families. On July 1, 1861, this company was transferred from the 6th Virginia Infantry Regiment, to become Company H of the 12th Virginia Infantry. One soldier reminisced about their first assignment after their April 1861 enlistment, a train ride to Norfolk. The next morning I volunteered in the "B" Grays of Petersburg, and on the 20th of April, 1861, we boarded a train enroute to Norfolk. Our organization was then known as the "Petersburg Battalion," comprising two companies of Grays (A and B), each 108 men, the "City Guard," "Petersburg Rifles," "The Lafayette Guards," and the "Nichols Battery of Artillery," The whole of Petersburg seemed to have turned out on that eventful April morning to bid us farewell, and mingled with tears, banners and handkerchiefs waving, we sped away over the Petersburg and Norfolk Railroad, as it was then known. Uniforms during the war Throughout the war, the regiment went through inconsistent reequipping, tending to leave the men with proper accoutrements and weapons, but without uniforms. The men were first supplied by the City of Petersburg, in April 1861, with new grey uniforms. However, that would be the