Abner
B. Robertson, the son of Paschal Robertson and Saluda
A. E. Bradshaw, was born in Nottoway County, Virginia,
in 1839. Before the War of Northern Aggression, he was
a farmer and a butcher in Nottoway County. When the
War broke out in April 1861, Abner’s older brothers,
Robert A. and Thomas A. Robertson, both farmers, joined
Captain Henry T. Owen’s Nottoway Rifle Guards,
which became Company C of the 18th Virginia Infantry.
Abner did not join the company until March 10, 1862,
when it passed through Orange Courthouse, Virginia,
on its march down from northern Virginia to defend Richmond
against the Yankee invaders under General George B.
McClellan.
The 18th Virginia Infantry, commanded by Colonel Robert
E. Withers, had completed its organization in May 1861
and consisted of companies from the towns of Danville
and Farmville and the counties of Nottoway, Cumberland,
Prince Edward, Appomattox, Pittsylvania, and Charlotte.
The 18th Virginia fought at First Manassas in July 1861
but did not see action again until the Battle of Williamsburg
in May 1862 as part of Brigadier General George E. Pickett’s
Brigade. The 18th remained a part of General Robert
E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia from the battles
of the Seven Days’ through the battle of Gettysburg,
with a sideshow at Suffolk in April 1863. It fought
gallantly in the Seven Days battles, especially at Gaines’
Mill and Frayser’s Farm, at Second Manassas and
Sharpsburg, and was held in reserve at Fredericksburg.
The regiment suffered grievous casualties on July 3,
1863, in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg as part
of Brigadier General Richard B. Garnett’s Brigade.
For the entire time it was a part of Lee’s army,
it served in the First Corps under Lieutenant General
James Longstreet. After the fight at Gettysburg, the
18th Virginia, whose brigade was now commanded by Brigadier
Eppa Hunton, joined Pickett’s division in its
sojourn into North Carolina in late 1863 but returned
to Virginia in May 1864, when it fought at Drewry’s
Bluff in Chesterfield County and Cold Harbor in Hanover.
It remained with Lee’s army throughout the Petersburg
Campaign of 1864-65, fought in the Battle of Five Forks
in Dinwiddie County, at Sayler’s Creek on the
retreat from Petersburg and Richmond, and surrendered
with Lee’s army at Appomattox Courthouse on April
9, 1865. At Appomattox, only 2 officers and 32 men remained
to surrender the flag of this gallant regiment.
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None of
the Robertson boys from Nottoway made it to Appomattox.
Abner was slightly wounded at Gaine’s Mill on June
27, 1862, and again at Frayser’s Farm on June 30.
Robert survived the Seven Days’ battles unscathed,
but Thomas was so severely wounded at Gaine’s Mill
that he was forced to return home to recover. Weakened
by his wound, he died of consumption in April 1863 when
his brothers were fighting at Suffolk. Weakened also by
his wounds, Abner remained sick in hospitals at Lynchburg
and Danville from late August to early October 1862, missing
the battles at Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. At Gettysburg,
he and brother Robert, now a corporal, fell wounded in
Pickett’s Charge. Robert was wounded so severely
in the leg and arm that he died of his wounds 3 weeks
later. Abner, meanwhile, fell into the hands of the enemy
and was held as a prisoner of war, first at Fort Delaware
then at Point Lookout, Maryland, before he was exchanged
in late February 1865. He was unable to keep up with his
regiment and received his parole at Burkeville, in Nottoway
County, in mid-April 1865 … the only one of his
parent’s three sons to survive the War.
After the War, Abner Robertson remained in Nottoway
County, where he married Ann Thomas Dalton of Lunenburg,
who gave him 9 children. Abner helped build the Baptist
church in Crewe, where he worked as a farmer and a butcher
until his death at the age 63 in 1902. He was buried
in Ward’s Chapel Cemetery between Burkeville and
Crewe in Nottoway County.
The memory of Private Abner B. Robertson, Company C,
18th Virginia Infantry, is perpetuated in this camp
by his great-grandson, Compatriot Edward L. Spain.
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