John Daniel Imboden (American National Biography)
Scholarship
After the election of Abraham Lincoln, Imboden ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Virginia's secession convention. A friend of former Virginia governor and prominent secessionist Henry A. Wise, Imboden was also among those who advocated immediate secession from the Union.
When the Civil War broke out, Imboden raised and organized the Staunton Artillery and became its first captain. The newly organized battery was among the Virginia troops that occupied the abandoned Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on 19 April 1861. At the first battle of Bull Run (Manassas) on 21 July 1861, Imboden led his battery in action, supporting the brigade of General Barnard Bee in some of the thickest fighting to hold crucial Henry House Hill. Imboden's duties during the months after Bull Run remain unknown, but the next spring he appeared again, this time raising the First Partisan Rangers Regiment, later known as the Sixty-second Virginia Mounted Infantry, a formation of mounted troops intended to make guerrilla raids behind enemy lines. Nevertheless, he fought in "Stonewall" Jackson's forces at Cross Keys and Port Republic, 8 and 9 June 1862, in the Shenandoah Valley. The following winter Imboden was promoted to brigadier general on 28 January 1863. His command thereafter was the Northwestern Brigade of the Department of Northern Virginia.
When the Civil War broke out, Imboden raised and organized the Staunton Artillery and became its first captain. The newly organized battery was among the Virginia troops that occupied the abandoned Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on 19 April 1861. At the first battle of Bull Run (Manassas) on 21 July 1861, Imboden led his battery in action, supporting the brigade of General Barnard Bee in some of the thickest fighting to hold crucial Henry House Hill. Imboden's duties during the months after Bull Run remain unknown, but the next spring he appeared again, this time raising the First Partisan Rangers Regiment, later known as the Sixty-second Virginia Mounted Infantry, a formation of mounted troops intended to make guerrilla raids behind enemy lines. Nevertheless, he fought in "Stonewall" Jackson's forces at Cross Keys and Port Republic, 8 and 9 June 1862, in the Shenandoah Valley. The following winter Imboden was promoted to brigadier general on 28 January 1863. His command thereafter was the Northwestern Brigade of the Department of Northern Virginia.
Steven E. Woodworth, "Imboden, John Daniel," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00373.html.
