3rd Infantry Regiment was organized at Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1856 with volunteer companies attached to the 7th Regiment Virginia Militia. It entered Confederate service during July, 1861. Its members were from Portsmouth and Petersburg, and the counties of Nansemond, Dinwiddie, Surry, Isle of Wight, Southampton, and Halifax. Three companies were in the fight at Big Bethel, then the regiment was assigned to General Colston's, Pryor's, Kemper's, and W.R. Terry's Brigade. It fought with the Army of Northern Virginia from Williamsburg to Gettysburg except when it was detached to Suffolk with Longstreet. Later it was active in the conflicts at Plymouth, Drewry's Bluff, and Cold Harbor, the Petersburg siege south and north of the James River, and the Appomattox Courthouse Campaign. This unit totalled 550 men in April, 1862, and reported 97 casualties during the Seven Days' Battles, 19 in the Maryland Campaign, and 11 at Fredericksburg. Of the 332 engaged at Gettysburg, more than thirty-five percent were disabled. Many were captured at Five Forks and Sayler's Creek, and only 1 officer and 60 men surrendered in April, 1865. The field officers were Colonels Joseph Mayo, Jr. and Roger A. Pryor; and Lieutenant Colonels Alexander D. Callcote, William H. Pryor, and Joseph V. Scott.
