Susan
.. The Virginia Militia units were a pre-war and early war era military organizations that fell under the State of Virginia itself. Once the war kicked in many members of these early organizations enlisted into regular units that served the Confederate central government as part of a states quota of units/forces. Not all members of the militia enlisted into the regulars. Most of the existing pre-war Militia units were used a core to create other regular units, however some Militia units remained intact for at least the first year of the war. When the Confederate forces were reorganized in early 1862 most of these still remaining faded out. Thereafter for local service such as the Militia generally did, they had the State Reserves, Local Home Guards, State Line troop units that fullfilled the function. Most of these guys were those that were too young, too old, or unfit for regular field service, but could still provide some light local duty.

The 136th Va Militia hailed from Shenandoah County. It existed through much of 1861 and early 1862 when it was disbanded. It was called up several times by the state for local duty service.

Also a thing to remember is that this was a "State" Service Militia unit. It was called out by the governor and answered back to him, or his state level designee as well. These State local service units are technically different than what most refer to as "Regulars" that were in units that served in the fielded Confederate Armys. This is also one main reason you wont find much collective information in Confederate Records on these units. Since they normally werent part of nor assigned to any Confederate Brigade/Division etc. Thus little to no references or records on them in the usual places. Also the unfortunate part is that what information, rosters, and files that did exist on most of these early war units were destroyed and lost in the Richmond fire in 1865 at the end of the war. So what little that is known is generally gleened from alternate sources, newspaper articles etc.

Frederick