Samuel V. Hughlett, Casualty of the War for Southern Independence

The 40th Virginia Infantry regiment was comprised mainly of farmers and nearly without exception of men from the Northern Neck of Virginia.  When the call for volunteers was made, these men wasted no time in springing to the defense of their state and country.
Company G was formed in Northumberland County on May 26, 1861.  One of those volunteers was Private Samuel V. Hughlett, a 24-year old unmarried farmer and son of William L. Hughlett and Margaret Hughlett.

 The regiment was officially organized on May 30 and accepted into Confederate service July 1, with one year enlistments. Colonel John Mercer Brockenbrough of Richmond County was elected regimental commander.  The regiment became a part of General Charles W. Field's Virginia brigade.

Charles Field, "Charlie" as everyone called him, was stocky and full of humor.  He was born in Kentucky, with Culpeper, Virginia roots.   Graduating from West Point two years behind A. P. "Powell" Hill, Fields was teaching cavalry tactics at West Point when the War began. He was probably the best of the three professional soldiers then commanding Hill's "Light Division,"1 although his performance seemed always to be solid rather than brilliant.  His Virginia brigade included the 40th, 47th, 55th and the 2nd Battalion (?).

By the end of June 1862, Samuel Hughlett had been promoted to 5th Sergeant and had re-enlisted for another year.

After much training and several minor skirmishes during the year, the regiment  engaged in its first major battle at Mechanicsville or Beaver Dam Creek on June 26 where it faced unsuccessfully, tremendous artillery fire that stopped its advance.  However, during the night the Union troops retreated only to face the Regiment again. The 40th and the rest of  A. P. Hill's division, moved towards the Union Troops on the morning of the 27th, reaching Boatswain's Swamp, a slow-moving marshy creek by 2 p.m.

The "Swamp" consisted of banks and bottom land heavily overgrown with trees and underbrush.  The Light Division faced Fitz John Porter's Union Fifth Corps and 17 artillery batteries of 96 guns and infantry spread along a plateau facing west and north in a bow shape 1 3/4 miles long.  South of the nearby Chickahominy River within range were two batteries of long-range guns.

More to come
1The exact origin of Powell Hill's "Light Division" and its intent are unknown.  It was the largest division in the Confederate Army at the time (1862). A soldier in Fields' brigade eventually came to his own conclusion: The name was applicable, for we often marched without coats, blankets, knapsacks or any other burden except for our arms and haversacks which were never heavy and sometimes empty."