In 1861, a young Peter Huddleston helped form Bedford's Piedmont Rangers, an infantry company of volunteers. The unit was thrust into action at Manassas in the first major engagement of America's Civil War. Following the end of his year's enlistment, Peter joined Company A, Second Virginia Cavalry, and kept a diary though the years he fought from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg and in Lee's last charge, at Appomattox. Peter's guiding principle was duty, and when he was later elected Bedford County Sheriff, the courage of the battlefield would again be called for when a mob formed at Cifax and rode to Bedford City to lynch an accused man in Sheriff Huddleston's jail.
