The Regiment, 1863 to 1865

The original Engineers were authorized by the Confederate Congress in early 1863 as one of a total of four regiments to serve in the regular army as field engineers to build or repair bridges, handle pontoons, and lead the placement and construction of field earthworks, including siege mines and counter mines. The 1st Regiment, and in time a large portion of the 2nd Regiment was assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia. Initially drawn from the existing line ranks and comprised of various tradesmen, General Lee objected to the thinning of his infantry and so organization was delayed to locate a different source of engineer troops. That was to be the conscript and enlistment camps. By Spring 1864 campaign season, the Engineers, now trained, equipped and armed, were part of the ANV ranks. The regiment served as combat engineers both and as line infantry. The Engineers served in every major battle as part of the ANV from the opening of the 1864 season all the way through to the last battles leading up to Appomattox and the surrender.

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Time to take Action as Virginia and as Americans

If you live in Virginia, because of poor republican leadership who selected three of the most un-electable candidates since Reconstruction. And because too many rank and file republicans simply stayed home. And because we have way to many anti-American/anti-Virginia people in Virginia we are in a world of cultural attack. For clarity here, “anti-American/ant-Virginia” is inclusive of all those infected by DTS and  democrats/communists/nazis/fascists/leftists who are all the same  thing with different shades of “left red”.

As free and individual citizens, we are in a tough situation.  The forces of political and cultural destruction are in control and we, as gun owners, will have to fight in the courts (at least for now) to keep or regain what they are trying to take away....our freedoms. 
Especially our firearms. This is not about AR15s, semi-autos or magazines, it is our basic rights that are under attack here.             

If you are not a member of the Virginia Citizens Defense League currently, you need to be. They lead the charge last year and defeated the democrats move for universal background checks which was designed to prevent the free exchange of firearms as is out natural right. They will be in the forefront of this years new legal battles through the Virginia Citizens Defense Fund (VCDF) . They need members and funds. Your freedoms in Virginia depend on their legal power.  The website for the VCDL is:                  

https://www.vcdl.org/    
 
 In addition, the Gun Owners of America (GOA) has been a  strong partner with VCDL in the fight to preserve our  rights here in Virginia.  They have also won legal battles  across the nation and being a member of the GOA has benefitted many by being part of a protected class of persons during legal battles. They are having a raffle to raise money to fund more lawsuits in Virginia.  (VCDL and the VCDF are also fund-raising for the same reason and will be doing some online auctions in the next few months).    Here is information on the GOA raffle: 
 

https://go.rallyup.com/gof/

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Planning for 2026

  

A Waud 

Source: https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com

2026 Scheduling

The following is the 2026 Draft Schedule. This was also in the November issue of the Essayons Team Newsletter. 

One day to be determined is a day to train the interested team members on the artillery.  

Now is the time to start planning.... 

Jan 16-18 Snowball 
March 27-29 Early Bird
April 10-12 Chesapeake Regional
April 17-19 Potomac Regional
April 25 Central Virginia Recruitment Skirmish 
May 1-3 Central Virginia Regional 
May 13-17 153th Nationals
June 5-7 Cockade Rifles Skirmish
June 20 Work Skirmish
June 26-28 Mason Dixon
July 10-12 McNeills Rangers
July 17-19 N-SSA Veterans Match
August 7-9 Allegheny Regional 
August 13-15 Wainwright Artillery
August 21-23 Gator Match
September 11-13 Fall Potomac Regional
September 19 Potomac Region Recruitment Match
September 30 - October 4 154th Nationals
October 23-25 Halloween Match 
 
 

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Welcome to the 1st Engineers Regiment, PACS

Welcome to the 1st Regiment Engineers Home Page. The Engineers are a member team of the North-South Skirmish Association. The N-SSA is an association of recreated units from Florida to Maine and as far west as the Mississippi River who fought in the War Between the States from both sides of the conflict. Today, we compete in marksmanship with period military firearms and field artillery, both original and reproduction. We compete at ranges throughput the regions, but or home range is in Winchester, Virginia. The photo above was taken at our 2025 Carbine Match in Winchester.

You can find links to the N-SSA on this page as well as a link to a short history or the original Confederate unit and our team. If you have an interest in history or live fire musket shooting and reside in western Virginia, eastern West Virginia, western Maryland, southwest Pennsylvania, please consider contacting us for more information on the association and our unit.