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John Hanson Mcneill Edit Profile

commander Confederate soldier

John Hanson McNeill was a Confederate soldier who served as a Captain in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

Background

Mcneill, John Hanson was born on June 12, 1815 in Hardy County, Virginia, United States. Son of Strother McNeill.

Career

He led McNeill"s Rangers, an independent irregular Confederate military company commissioned under the Partisan Ranger Acting. In 1861, he formed and was named commander of a company in the Missouri State Guard, seeing action in Boonville, Carthage, Wilson"s Creek, and Lexington. Although captured and imprisoned in Saint Louis, he escaped on June 15, 1862, and made his way back to Virginia.

In Richmond, he obtained permission to form an independent unit in the western counties of West Virginia and Virginia in order to disrupt Union activities in the area.

This was granted, and on September 5, 1862, McNeill became captain of Company East of the 18th Virginia Cavalry, more commonly known as McNeill"s Rangers. Along with raids on railroads and wagon trains, he first proposed the operation that became the Jones-Imboden Raid.

His final action occurred on October 3, 1864, in which he led his unit in an attack on a detachment of the 8th Ohio Cavalry Regiment guarding a bridge at Meems Bottom near Mount Jackson, Virginia. Although it was a victory for his forces, he was severely wounded in the predawn raid.

He was taken first to the Reverend Anders Rude home nearby, then moved to Hill"s Hotel in Harrisonburg, Virginia (where the Massanutten Regional Library now stands).

He died there on November 10, 1864. He was first buried in Harrisonburg with full Military and Masonic honors. Several months later his Rangers returned his body to Hardy County for reinterment.

He is buried in Olivet Cemetery in Moorefield, West Virginia, next to the Monument to Confederate Dead, surrounded by the graves of other Confederate soldiers.

Achievements

  • John Hanson Mcneill has been listed as a noteworthy stock raiser, army officer by Marquis Who's Who.

Connections

Married Jemima Cunningham, January 1837, at least 1 child, Jesse.

Father:
Strother McNeill. Mcneill

Spouse:
Jemima Cunningham

child:
Jesse Mcneill