Faces of the 12th Virginia Infantry ("Petersburg Regiment"): Robert Randolph Henry, Courier at Gettysburg

Caption:  Robert Randolph Henry

Credit:  Judy Llamas, “Robert Randolph Henry,” findagrave.com, May 25, 2017

Born in South Carolina, Robert Randolph Henry was a student when he enlisted in the Petersburg Riflemen, the 12th Virginia's Company E, in 1861.  The 12th was known as the Petersburg Regiment because most its ten companies came from Petersburg.  According to Pvt. Westwood A. Todd, a Norfolk lawyer who had transferred from the Petersburg City Guard, the 12th's Company A, the Riflemen were the flower of Petersburg.  Many of the company's highly educated members, including Henry and Todd, went on to become officers.

During the winter of 1862-1863, Henry was Todd's "chum."  That meant the two slept together for warmth.

By the battle of Gettysburg, Henry was serving as a courier for the division commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Heron "Fighting Dick" Anderson.  On July 3, 1863, during the artillery duel preliminary to Pickett's Charge, Henry was carrying a dispatch to the division from General Anderson.  Fragments from a Federal shell killed Henry's horse and Henry had to deliver his dispatch to a different part of Anderson's division than the part intended.  We do not know what the dispatch said, but in all likelihood it dictated the subsequent advance of the division; but when the time came for the division to go forward, it was too late to do any good and another courier arrived with orders calling off Wright's, Posey's and Mahone's brigades.  Wilcox's and Lang's were not called off and advanced only to add to the number of casualties.

At the battle of Globe Tavern about six miles south of Petersburg (Globe Tavern was also known as Six Mile House, among other things) on August 19, 1864, Henry was dispatched by Brig. Gen. William Mahone, then in command of Anderson's division, to seek reinforcements from Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, the corps commander.  Henry got lost in the woods and went southeast instead of northwest.  Encountering a column of Union soldiers, he turned back into an area teeming with men of both sides knocked loose from their commands.  There he encountered a Federal brigadier riding accompanied only by an aide.  Henry pulled an inoperative pistol captured at the Crater on July 30, 1864, took the two Unionists prisoner, and handed them over to Mahone.

As of the battle of Burgess Mill, October 27, 1864, Henry was an officer on Mahone's staff.  Henry suffered a serious wound that sidelined him for the rest of the war.

After the war, Henry moved to Tazewell County in western Virginia and served there as Commonwealth Attorney.