Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Marching with Stonewall - leaders and men of the ‘Page Grays'
Article of June 4, 1998
On June 1, 1861, the "Page Grays" were enlisted of men from all over Page County. Officially mustered into the service of the Confederacy on June 18, the company was initially led by Captain William D. Rippetoe. A 25 year-old Methodist minister, Rippetoe had not been in Page County for too many years upon receiving the post. As of the 1860 census, Rippetoe and his 21 year old bride were in residence at James W. Modesitt's hotel in Luray.
The first of the four "solely" Page County companies, Rippetoe's company was designated as Company H, 33rd Virginia Infantry in what would become the famous "Stonewall" Brigade. Serving only briefly, Rippetoe would be succeeded by 30 year-old Ambrose Booten Shenk in November 1861. Shenk, a clerk and salesman in Luray, had been married for seven years by the time of Virginia's secession. Shenk's career in the Page Grays was cut short however, falling mortally wounded at the battle of Kernstown in March 1862. Mary Jones Shenk was left to care for two young children.
The third and final captain of the Page Grays was elected to the post on April 21, 1862. Captain Michael Shuler was to serve in his new post for at least two years. Born in Page County in 1844, Michael was the oldest son of John and Mary Ann Kite Shuler of Grove Hill. Michael had attended Roanoke College as a partial student from late 1860 to 1861, along with another native of Page, Benjamin Franklin Grove. Unlike Shuler however, Grove was a native of Luray and chose his service with the Dixie Artillery and later as a member of Mosby's 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry. A trusted leader to the end, Shuler would fall as a victim of the heated action at the Battle of the Wilderness in the afternoon of May 5, 1864.
Among the ranks of the Page Grays were several boys from the Hite family of Mill Creek. Daniel and Rebecca Hite saw witness to the enlistment of two of their sons in Rippetoe's company in June 1861, and two sons in the 97th Militia in July and August. A shoemaker, William F. Hite would be the first to enlist and was soon after elevated to the post of 1st lieutenant. Under his first trial of fire, William was wounded on July 21, 1861 at Henry Hill during the First Battle of Manassas. Suffering from a wound to the lung, he died of complications due to typhoid four months later. David C. Hite, William's brother, having transferred and enlisted in the Page Grays in April, 1862, was also wounded at Second Manassas a year later, but recovered to join his remaining brother in the field. Nearly two years after William's wounding, 1st Sergeant John P. Hite was mortally wounded on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg during the heated fighting on July 3, 1863. Suffering for two more days, John died on July 5 and was buried by David two miles north of the Pennsylvania town. David, having taken the risk to remain behind with his dying brother, was captured and sent as a prisoner-of-war to Point Lookout, Maryland until March, 1864 when he was exchanged. Almost six months to the day of his exchange, David would be the last of his brothers to fall, being killed-in-action at Winchester on September 16, 1864.
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