Photo: 4th VA Infantry battle flag; Main Virginia cavalry battle flag
Age at Enlistment: 21
Length of Service: 1861-1865
State: Virginia
Rank: Pvt / Cpl / Sgt
Unit: 4th VA Infantry Regiment; 14th VA Cavalry Regiment
Service Record: Enlisted in the “Pulaski Guards” (Virginia) which would become Company C of the 4th VA Infantry on 17 Apr 1861 (the 4th VA Infantry would become part of the “Stonewall Brigade”); promoted to Cpl on 1 Aug 1861; transferred to Co. F on 29 Jan 1864 of 14th VA Cav; NFR but survived war
Survived War: Yes
Cemetery / Burial: Stuart Methodist Church Cemetery; Pulaski Co., VA; he was then Reinterred at Oakwood Cemetery (date unk.)
Soldier Info: Born in Dublin, Pulaski Co., VA in 1840; Died in Dublin, Pulaski Co., VA in 1897; older brother was James Henry Darst.
John Benjamin Darst was born July 17, 1840, near Dublin in Pulaski County, Virginia. Reared at “Ash Brook,” he attended private schools and then assisted his father in the management of the farm until the spring of 1861.
In the early months of that year, events pointed increasingly to the probability of war – the election of Lincoln, the secession of states to the South, the assembling of a Secession Convention in Virginia, and then Lincoln’s call upon Virginia for troops. The family was involved directly in what was taking place in Richmond through John’s uncle, Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Wysor, a practicing Pulaski Co., VA lawyer and member of the Secession Convention of 1861.
In the early days of April 1861, the young men of Pulaski County were enthusiastic about the impending opportunity to “whip the Yankees,” and on April 17, John B. Darst and his first cousins, William B. and John W. Darst, joined the Pulaski Guards at Newbern.
This organization became Company C, Fourth Regiment, Virginia Infantry, Confederate States Army, in which John B. Darst served as private, corporal, and sergeant.
The Darsts of Virginia
by H. Jackson Darst
Relationship to Author: 3rd cousin 5x
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