The 8th Virginia Infantry Regiment was a Confederate infantry regiment raised by Colonel Eppa Hunton in Leesburg, Virginia on May 8, 1861. The unit comprised six companies from Loudoun, two companies from Fauquier, one company from Fairfax and one company from Prince William. Initial regimental officers included: Lt. Colonel Charles B. Tebbs, Major Norborne Berkeley, John M. Orr - Quartermaster, Dr. Richard H. Edwards - Surgeon, Charles F. Linthicum - Chaplain. After Eppa Hunton's promotion to brigadier general in August 1863, in part based on his valor during the Battle of Gettysburg, particularly during Pickett's Charge (although the regiment suffered 90% casualties, either wounded like Hunton, killed or missing), Norborne Berkeley was promoted to command the 8th Virginia, and his brother Edmund became the Lieut. Colonel, his brother William Berkeley, Major, and Charles Berkeley became the senior Captain of what then became known as the "Berkeley Regiment." Nonetheless, Norborne, William and Charles Berkeley were all in Union prisoner of war camps and their brother Edmund still recovering from his Gettysburg wound on August 9. History In May 1861, the Governor of Virginia, John Letcher, granted Eppa Hunton the commission of Colonel and ordered him to raise an infantry regiment from the northern Virginia area. Before the Battle of First Bull Run, the newly raised 8th Virginia was assigned to guard the numerous Potomac River crossings in Loudoun County, from which it had drawn four companies. The regiment fought in that battle to particular acclaim (suffering 30 casualties out of 450 effectives) and then returned to Leesburg, where they were engaged in the Battle of Ball's Bluff in October 1861 (suffering 43 wounded of the 375 engaged). In March 1862 the 8th was ordered to leave Loudoun to participate in the Peninsula Campaign as part of Pickett's Brigade. Lt. Col. Tebbs, who had been Loudoun's Commonwealth Attorney before the war and captain of the Loudoun Guards and secession advocate, relinquished his commission in April and took a civilian job with the Confederate States government in Richmond. After a valiant charge at the Battle of Gaines' Mill in June (one of the Seven Days Battles in which the unit lost a total of 10 killed and 66 wounded), Col. Hunton referred to his men, who he felt would go against any odds seemingly without counting the cost, as The Bloody Eighth, a term he would use from then on. In September 1862,