Portsmouth Rifles Monument

Portsmouth Rifles Monument. . In the 1870's and 1880's Confederate veterans and local memorial associations began to commemorate the War for Southern Independence. Most monuments, owing to the destitute conditions after the war, were small and unadorned and mostly located in the community's cemetery., Around the turn of the century, 2nd Lieutenant John Lewis, a member of the Portsmouth Rifles, erected this simple monument within his wife's family lot. Cut into the shaft's four sides are the names of the officers and enlisted men of the company. The Rifles were redesignated in 1861 as Company G, 9th Virginia Infantry, BrigGen Lewis A. Armistead's Regiment, MajGen George G. Pickett's Division. The company served until Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865., At Gettysburg, Pa., on July 3, 1863, the Rifles, led by Colonel John C. Owens of Portsmouth, created and briefly broke the Union position at Cemetery Hill at what is now known as the "'High Water Mark of the Confederacy". In the hope of winning peace, General Robert E. Lee's strategy called for breaking the Union center, destroying their Army and opening the way to Washington, D.C. The men held on for about twenty minutes, fighting with bayonet, clubbed musket and bare knuckles. The planned support never came and the men of Pickett's Charge were decimated., Among the captured was Lt. Lewis who was made a prisoner of war. After release in July 1865 he returned here but could find no employment for his carpenter's skills. He and his family moved to Vashington in 1867, where he prospered., Lewis, like many other veterans wrote his memoirs in 1895. His "Recollections From 1860 to 1865" is considered a classic. Lewis lies buried to the right of the monument he erected to his comrades.