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A great ribbon from a hard to find artillery unit that served with the Army of Northern Virginia.  The ribbon is a beize color with "Richmond Howitzers" written in red.  The ribbon is approximately 5 1/4 inches long. 

1st company, Richmond howitzers George Wythe Randolph, the first captain of the Richmond Howitzers, was born in 1818 at Monticello, the home of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Jefferson. Randolph was appointed a midshipman at the age of thirteen, and served in the navy for six years. Afterwards he studied law at the University of Virginia, and in 1850 moved to Richmond to practice his profession. He con-ceived the idea of the "Howitzer Battery", which began organization on November 9, 1859, him-self as captain and Gaston Otey as First Ser-geant. The Richmond Howitzers grew into a battalion of three companies by May 1861. The original company, reorganized on May 8 with the election of Captain John C. Shields, was thereafter known as the 1st Company. In November 1861 Captain Shields was promoted to Lt. Colonel and trans-ferred, to be replaced by Lt. Wm. Palmer. In March of 1862 Captain Palmer, who desired to go into army medical service, was replaced by 1st. Lt. Edward McCarthy. An elite unit, the Howitzers served with dis-tinction. The 1st Company Richmond Howitzers, a four-gun battery, participated at First Manas-sas, the Peninsular Campaign, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' Battles, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and the retreat from Richmond to Appomattox. At Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863, its two rifled guns expended 200 rounds of ammunition in less than two hours at Devil's Den, and the next day, one piece alone expended 300 rounds in support of Pickett's Charge. The battery saw its commander, Edward S. McCarthy, killed at Cold Harbor; felled instantly by a sharpshooter’s minie ball. For more history visit our website, www.1stcorichmondhowitzers.com.