Lt. Col. Roger Preston Chew (1843-1921)

R. Preston Chew, Confederate artillery officer, was born here at Locust Grove. He moved to what is now West Virginia as a child and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute. In Nov. 1861 he helped organize, and became captain of, the Confederacy's first horse artillery company. The unit, known as Chew’s Battery, participated in Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1862 and later joined the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion, part of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry command. Chew became commander of the Stuart Horse Artillery early in 1865. A prominent businessman after the war, he served in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1885 until 1890.

Department of Historic Resources, 2019