Independent Loudoun Virginia Rangers

F-36

Created under authorization of the U.S. Secretary of War, the Independent Loudoun Rangers were the only organized Union cavalry unit in Confederate Virginia. Their first captain, local miller Samuel C. Means, mustered two companies from local Quakers, the German settlement in Lovettsville and other Unionists beginning June 1862. Although the Rangers suffered that summer in a clash with Confederate Col. Elijah V. White's Cavalry (35th VA Battalion) at Waterford Baptist Church, they continued to serve as scouts and protectors of local Unionists throughout the Civil War. In 1864, after Means refused to transfer his command to West Virginia, Capt. Daniel Keyes replaced him.

Department of Historic Resources, 2010

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Goodhart, Briscoe. History of the Independent Loudoun Rangers, U.S. Vol. Cav. (Scouts), 1862-65, (Washington DC: McGill & Wallace, 1896). Myers, Frank. The Comanches: A History of White’s Battalion, Virginia Cavalry. (Baltimore: Kelly Publishing and Co., 1871). National Archives (VARA), microfilm entry M398, “Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia.” U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation Of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols., Washington, DC: US Gov. Printing Office. The Waterford Foundation published books on the Civil War: To Talk Is Treason, Quakers of Waterford, Virginia, on Life Love, Death & War in the Southern Confederacy; The Waterford News: An Underground Union Newspaper Published by Three Quaker Maidens in Confederate Virginia 1864-65; Waterford Perspectives.