Liberty Hall Volunteers
Liberty Hall Volunteers
A 52”x52” marble plaque honoring Company I of the 4th Virginia Infantry, a Confederate company composed almost entirely of students from Washington College. Many of the veterans returned to Washington College and completed their studies under Robert E. Lee’s presidency.
Erected: June 14, 1910
Removed: Summer 2021
Originally Located In: Lee Chapel (front atrium)
Current Status: Unknown
Commissioned By: The Board of Trustees of Washington and Lee University, and veterans of the company.
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The Liberty Hall Volunteers were organized at Washington College in the spring of 1861 as Company I of the 4th Virginia Infantry, later part of the famed Stonewall Brigade. Composed largely of Washington College students, alumni, and men connected with the Lexington community, the company took its name from an earlier body of Liberty Hall Academy students who had mobilized during the American Revolution. Before leaving Lexington, the volunteers received a flag bearing the motto Pro Aris et Focis — “For altar and home” — words later incorporated into their memorial tablet. The plaque ultimately recorded seventy-seven members of the company and declared that they “fought in thirty two battles from Manassas to Appomattox, where the remnant surrendered with Lee.”
The movement to memorialize the company originated within Washington and Lee itself. In June 1888, the Board of Trustees resolved that a committee should propose “some suitable memorial commemoration of the ‘Liberty Hall Volunteers,’” appointing LHV veteran A. T. Barclay to lead the effort. In 1892, the Trustees specified that a tablet should be placed in the chapel and requested designs and estimates for marble and bronze versions. Although the project stalled, the University continued working with surviving veterans to establish an authoritative company roll. In 1901, the Trustees formally accepted that roll into the University records, while veteran Alexander S. Paxton was authorized to prepare a history of the company as one of the University’s historical publications. The memorial was thus the product of more than two decades of collaboration among the University’s trustees, faculty, alumni, and surviving Liberty Hall Volunteers, rather than an outside memorial organization like the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The completed 52-by-52-inch marble tablet was dedicated in Lee Chapel on June 14, 1910, nearly half a century after the company had departed Lexington. Fifteen surviving Liberty Hall Volunteers attended as guests of honor. Among the speakers was veteran and former Washington and Lee professor Rev. Dr. Givens B. Strickler, who reflected: “Time will not suffice to tell in detail the story of the services bravely rendered, and sufferings cheerfully borne in battle, in bivouac, and upon the toilsome march in summer’s heat and dust, in winter’s cold, mud and snow.” He predicted that when their history was fully written, it would be “a story of dauntless courage, of unselfish devotion to duty, of suffering endured without a murmur, and death encountered without a qualm.” The following day, the surviving veterans formally thanked the Trustees for “the honor done us, and our absent comrades, dead and alive.”
University officials removed the plaque alongside other memorials from the chapel sanctuary in 2021. Its removal prompted a student petition calling for its restoration that gathered more than two hundred signatures. In July 2022, the university announced that the tablet would be “contextualized” in a new exhibit in the upper level of the chapel annex, adjacent to the Recumbent Lee statue. When the renovated chapel galleries reopened in June 2026, however, the Liberty Hall Volunteers tablet was not among the memorials returned to public display.
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LIBERTY HALL VOLUNTEERS COMPANY I, 4TH VA INFANTRY STONEWALL BRIGADE C.S.A. 1861—1865
ORIGINAL ROLL
OFFICERS
J.J. WHITE CAPT. J.N. LYLE 1ST. LIEUT. J.L. SHERRARD 2ND. LIEUT. W.A. ANDERSON 1ST. SARGT. D.E. RUFF 2ND. SARGT. E.A. MITCHELL 3RD. SARGT. C.W. BELL 4TH. SARGT. C.F. NELSON 5TH. SARGT. C.B. STRICKLER 1ST. CORP. F.T. BROOKE 2ND. CORP. W.L. PAXTON 3RD. CORP. W.T. MEADE 4TH. CORP.
PRIVATES
J.M. ANDERSON. J.W. ARNOLD. J.P. AMOLE. J.H. ARNOLD. A.T. BARCLAY. J.A. BIRD. A. BROOKS. W.J. BELL. B.A. BRADLEY. W. BROOKS. G.K. DAVIDSON. T.J. CODWIN. B.B. CWYNN. R.J. HALLETT. J.H.B. JONES. S.A. JOHNSON. H. JORDAN. M.S. KAHLE. H.R. LAIRD. C.M. LAM. S.H. LYLE. N.B. LOCAN. J.P. LIGHTNER. S.M. LIGHTNER. C.W. LACKEY. J.S. MACKEY. E. MEADE. J.J. MOORE. H.R. MORRISON. S.R. MOORE. H.H. MYERS. J.T. MCKEE. J.W. MC COUNTRY. C.F. NEEL. W.B. OTT. C.R. PACE. A.S. PAXTON. H.A. PAXTON. A.B. RAMSEY. J.S. RAYMOND. J.W. REILEY. T.H. REED. W.E. RICHARDSON. T.S. ROLLINS. J.T. REDWOOD. T.H. ROBERTS. C.D. STRICKLER. J.L. SUDDARTH. W.J. THOMPSON. T.M. TURNER. C. UTZ. J.A.R. VARNER. J.G. WATSON. C. WILLIAMS. W.N. WILSON. J.T. WILSON. H.A. WHITE. H.L. WILSON. J.W. WOODS. J.T. CHESTER.
ALUMNI RECRUITS
J.R. ANDERSON. T.F. AMOLE. W.M. JOHNSTON. J.D. MYERS. W.C. PRESTON.
TOTAL ROLL 76. KILLED 13, WOUNDED 26, DIED IN SERVICE 9, TOTAL 48 OUT OF 76.
THERE WERE 106 VOLUNTEERS OTHER THAN ALUMNI. SEE THEIR NAMES ON ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY'S ROLL OF HONOR, COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE, LEXINGTON VA. CASUALTIES AMONG THE LATTER. KILLED 14, WOUNDED 20, DIED IN SERVICE 6, TOTAL 40 OUT OF 106.
TOTAL ENROLLMENT 182. TOTAL CASUALTIES 88.
THEY FOUGHT IN THIRTY TWO BATTLES FROM MANASSAS TO APPOMATTOX, WHERE THE REMNANT SURRENDERED WITH LEE.
FLAG MOTTO
PRO ARIS ET FOCIS
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On June 4, 2021, the Washington and Lee University Board of Trustees announced plans to rename Lee Chapel and restore its auditorium to an “unadorned design,” physically separating it from the Lee family crypt and memorial sculpture. As part of these changes, university officials removed twenty historical plaques and memorials from the chapel sanctuary.
In a July 21, 2022, update, the university specifically announced that “the Liberty Hall Volunteers plaque will be contextualized as part of the new exhibit currently being planned for the gallery on the upper level of the annex, adjacent to the Lee statue.” The university reiterated its plans for the memorial's exhibition later that year.
On October 21, 2022, three plaques honoring veterans who had attended Washington and Lee were formally rededicated at the Memorial Gateway, commemorating Kiffin Yates Rockwell, James Howard Monroe, Clovis Moomaw and John Arthur Lingle Jr. At the dedication, Rector Mike McAlevey, ’86, declared, “The plaques belong here; the names belong here. They join the names of our fellow alumni who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.” The Liberty Hall Volunteers memorial was not among the plaques reinstalled at the Memorial Gateway.
In a July 16, 2023, statement concerning the removal of four other historical plaques, the university declared that its campus was “neither a museum nor an appropriate repository for Confederate artifacts.” The university did not specifically identify this policy as a reason for removing or withholding the Liberty Hall Volunteers tablet.
When the renovated chapel galleries reopened in June 2026, the Liberty Hall Volunteers tablet was not among the memorials returned to public display. The university has not announced a revised exhibition plan for the tablet, despite its earlier commitment to display it in the chapel annex.
The university has not responded to recent TGR inquiries concerning the whereabouts and future exhibition of removed plaques. However, in September 2026 correspondence with The W&L Spectator, Museum Director Matt Davis stated: “Our storage facility is not open to the public, nor do we make a list of our collections inventory available to the public.” He further explained that “the size and weight of some of these artifacts are not conducive to public viewing.” Regarding their future exhibition, Davis wrote: “It is possible that some or all of these artifacts will eventually be incorporated into temporary or permanent exhibits once the new museum is open, and we hope to have online databases and viewing rooms in the future.”
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W.G. Bean, The Liberty Hall Volunteers (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 2009)
https://columns.wlu.edu/update-on-university-chapel-renovations/
https://columns.wlu.edu/new-plaques-dedicated-to-the-memorial-gateway/
https://www.thegeneralsredoubt.us/press/promises-made-plaques-missing