4th West Virginia Infantry Regiment

The 4th West Virginia Infantry Regiment was mustered into Federal service on June 17, 1861, at Grafton, Point Pleasant, and Mason City, Virginia. It was recruited primarily in Ohio from the counties of Meigs, Gallia, Lawrence and Athens, which contributed seven full companies.[1] Among its early recruits was future United States Congressman John L. Vance, who would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Toward the end of the war, the regiment's re-enlisting veterans were consolidated with the 1st West Virginia Infantry Regiment (3 Year) on December 21, 1864, to form the 2nd West Virginia Veteran Infantry Regiment.

The 4th West Virginia Infantry Regiment suffered 3 officers and 80 enlisted men killed or fatally wounded in battle and 2 officers and 156 enlisted men dead from disease, a total of 241 fatalities.

• Colonel James H. Dayton

• Sergeant John C. Buckley, Company G, — Participating in a diversionary "forlorn hope" attack on Confederate defenses, 22 May 1863.[2][3][4][5]
• Sergeant William Bumgarner, Company A, — Participating in the same "forlorn hope."[2][3][4][5]
• Private Jasper N. North, Company D, — Participating in the same "forlorn hope."[2][3][4][5]
• Private James Calvin Summers, Company H, — Participating in the same "forlorn hope."[2][3][4][5]

• List of West Virginia Civil War Union units
• West Virginia in the Civil War

• Autobiography of Dr. Thomas H. Barton, the self-made physician of Syracuse, Ohio, including a history of the Fourth Regt. West Va. Vol. Inf'y, with an account of Col. Lightburn's retreat down the Kanawha Valley, Gen. Grant's Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns, together with the several battles in which the Fourth Regiment was engaged, and its losses by disease, desertion and in battle (1890) at the Internet Archive
• A Forlorn Hope
• Vicksburg Medal of Honor Recipients