The Civil War, 1861–1865
Wytheville sat at the intersection of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, near the salt works at Saltville and the lead mines at Austinville — industrial sites the Confederate war effort depended on. The town was contested, raided, and garrisoned throughout the four years of war. Old St. John Lutheran Church, in the middle of that geography, lost members of its congregation to the war and received into its cemetery soldiers from both armies.
This page records congregation members who died during Civil War service — killed in battle, died of wounds, died of disease, or died in captivity — between 1861 and 1865. It is not a roll of veterans. Many Confederate and Union veterans survived the war, came home, and are buried throughout the cemeteries of this region, including ours; they are not the subject of this page. The record below covers the war-era dead, with cause of death stated honestly where the record establishes it, and left open where it does not.
It does not frame Confederate enlistment approvingly. The Confederacy was an armed secessionist movement whose founding documents named the preservation of slavery as its central purpose. Virginia seceded in April 1861. Men of this congregation enlisted in Confederate units and died during the war; Federal soldiers were killed at Wytheville in 1863 and buried in the churchyard. Both are recorded here.
Congregation Members Who Died in Confederate Service
Ten congregation members died during Confederate service. Nine are buried at Old St. John’s; one marker at the cemetery is a cenotaph, the actual burial being elsewhere.
Joseph Rufus Brown (1840–1864) — plot J-26. Co. B, 45th Virginia Infantry. Enlisted at Wytheville, 5/29/1861. Promoted to lieutenant, 5/14/1862. Killed at the Battle of Cloyd’s Farm, 5/9/1864.
John J. Kegley (1845–1864). 45th Virginia Infantry. Killed at the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain, 5/9/1864, Dublin, Wythe County, Virginia — the same engagement as Joseph Rufus Brown. Virginia Deaths and Burials Index confirms the death date and location.
William Pattinson Blackwell (1840–1861) — plot J-74. Co. B, 45th Virginia Infantry. Enlisted at Wytheville, 5/29/1861. Died of disease, 12/7/1861, at Pack’s Ferry, Summers County, West Virginia (then Virginia).
Martin Leedy (1840–1861) — plot K-36. Co. D, 45th Virginia Infantry. Died during service, December 1861, Mercer County, West Virginia. The exact date differs between the headstone (December 5) and other records (December 26); cause of death is not confirmed in sources examined.
Dr. Joseph Crockett (1833–1862). Surgeon, 4th Virginia Regiment. Died 6/27/1862 during the fighting at Gaines’s Mill (also called First Cold Harbor), near Richmond. Buried at St. John’s; death recorded in the Wytheville Dispatch.
Hiram Andrew Sharitz (1840–1861) — plot K-10. 51st Virginia Infantry, Capt. William A. Yonce’s company. Enlisted at Wytheville, 7/20/1861. Died during service, 10/12/1861. Cause of death is not confirmed in sources examined; disease is probable.
David McAnally Sharitz (1834–1862) — plot K-11. 51st Virginia Infantry, same company, Orderly Sergeant. Enlisted at Wytheville, 7/20/1861. Died during service, 1/17/1862. Cause of death is not confirmed in sources examined; disease is probable.
Emory A. Neff (1842–1863) — plot J-47. Co. C, 51st Virginia Infantry. Died during service, 1863. Cause of death is not confirmed in sources examined.
George O. Phelps (d. 6/2/1865). 29th Virginia Infantry. Enlisted 4/1/1862. Wounded at Dinwiddie Court House, 3/31/1865. Died of wounds, 6/2/1865, at Farmville, Virginia — after Lee’s surrender, of wounds received in the final days of the war.
William Kegley. Died at Hart’s Island Union Prison Camp, New York, 1864. The marker at St. John’s is a cenotaph; his burial is at Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
Federal Soldiers Buried at Old St. John’s
On July 18, 1863, a Union raiding force under Col. John T. Toland reached Wytheville on a mission to disrupt the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. Toland’s command — the 34th Ohio Volunteer Mounted Infantry and attached units, about 872 men — exchanged fire with Confederate defenders and local home guards in the streets of the town. Toland was killed in the action. Between seven and fourteen Federal soldiers who died in the fighting were buried in St. John’s cemetery; contemporary accounts disagree on the exact number. Their names are largely unrecorded in church registers.
A Civil War Trails interpretive panel at the cemetery entrance describes the battle. It is the historical record most visitors encounter on site.
Civilian Deaths During the War Years
Fifty-six plots in this cemetery carry death dates between 1861 and 1865. Most are infants, children, women, and older adults — civilian deaths from disease, childbirth, farm accidents, or age. Wartime Virginia had strained medical care, disrupted supply lines, and elevated rates of epidemic disease. The toll of the war was not only on battlefields.
What Isn’t Here
Records of war-era deaths at Old St. John’s are incomplete. For some of the men listed above, cause of death is unconfirmed; compiled service records (CSRs) at the National Archives may establish it. Men who enlisted in the 4th, 45th, or 51st Virginia Infantry — the Wythe County–area Confederate regiments — and died in the field, in prison camps, or at home after wounds may have family here but are not identified in these plot records.
Research candidate: John Felty (1822–1864), listed in Co. E, 4th Regiment Virginia Reserves, CSA, d. 10/3/1864. Source not yet confirmed to the standard for this page. If you are researching a family member and have sourced documentation of their service or cause of death, contact the church to contribute it to the record.
Sources
- Sally Kegley, cemetery research (ongoing).
- Civil War Trails interpretive panel, St. John’s Lutheran Church, Wytheville.
- Wytheville Dispatch obituary (Dr. Joseph Crockett).
- Virginia Deaths and Burials Index (John J. Kegley).
- Find A Grave memorials: Joseph Rufus Brown (10291754); Joseph Crockett (88450776); Hiram Andrew Sharitz (41570609); David McAnally Sharitz (41570491); Emory A. Neff (108060560); William Kegley (78771691); George O. Phelps (41567155); William Pattinson Blackwell (37458447); Martin Leedy (115516587); John J. Kegley (110093770).
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