McNeil’s Company, Virginia Cavalry (McNeil’s Partisan Rangers)
McNeill’s Rangers, a Confederate guerrilla force consisting of
Company E of the 18th Virginia Cavalry and the First Virginia
Partisan Rangers, began operations in September 1862 under the
leadership of Capt. John H. ‘‘Hanse’’ McNeill. Operating out of
the Moorefield area, the Rangers attacked Union troops, camps,
and property of the vital Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. While most
of their operations were independent, the Rangers would on
occasion join up with other partisan groups or Confederate
regulars in operations against Union forces. In May 1863, they
took part in the wide-ranging Jones-Imboden Raid through much of
north central West Virginia. Captain McNeill was mortally
wounded on October 3, 1864, at a raid on Union forces at Mount
Jackson, Virginia. His son, Jesse, took command of the Rangers
and led them until the end of the war. On February 21, 1865,
they were successful in kidnapping Union generals George Crook
and Benjamin Kelley from the