Acting as a volunteer scout for Colonel Hunton, that day of the Ball's Bluff Battle was a young trooper of Ashby's Cavalry who, migrating from Maryland to Loudoun in 1857, purchased a farm on the shore of the Potomac and became very much of a Virginian. Elijah Viers White was born in Poolesville, Maryland, in 1832, attended Lima Seminary in Livingston County, New York, and later spent two years at Granville College in Licking County, Ohio. With the restlessness of his age he went to Kansas in 1855 and, as a member of a Missouri company, had some part in the factional fighting then distracting that territory. At the time of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry he served as a corporal in the Loudoun Cavalry and soon after the outbreak of the war was transferred to Ashby's Legion. By December, 1861, he was a captain, reporting to General Hill, and in charge of a line of couriers between Leesburg and Winchester. During the winter of 1861-'62 this force was quartered in Waterford and, somewhat augmented in numbers, was assigned to scouting and guarding the Potomac shore. Thus originated the unit which became so famous in Loudoun's history--the 35th Virginia Cavalry[157] or, as it was more generally known, "White's Battalion"--the "Comanches" affectionately held in local memory. Although having but about twenty-five men when wintering in Waterford, the organization increased with such rapidity that before the war's end its rolls, according to Captain Frank M. Myers, its historian, bore nearly 700 names. On the 28th October, 1862, it was formally mustered into the Confederate service by Colonel Bradley T. Johnson of General J. E. B. Stuart's staff. In its inception formed for scouting, raiding and other local duty, and regarded as an independent organization, it was fated in January, 1863, to become a part of Brigadier General William E. Jones' Brigade and thenceforward continued a part of the regular military establishment of the Confederacy.
As the fame and exploits of the command and its leader grew, the latter was promoted major in October, 1862, and lieutenant colonel in February, 1863. That he was not made a brigadier-general in accordance with the recommendation of the military committee of the Confederate Congress was due chiefly to General Lee's personal disapproval of Colonel White's lack of severity as a disciplinarian. Undoubtedly his men took advantage of his protective attitude toward them and incidents of insubordination, desertion, and even mutiny were not infrequent;[158] but as enthusiastic and fearless fighters they won and held the respect of both sides alike. How well and dearly this reputation as warriors was earned is shown by their participation in no less than thirty-one battles, including Cold Harbor, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Appomattox and in fifty-nine recorded minor engagements as well.[159] Colonel White himself was severely wounded on no less than seven occasions. Such was the esteem in which he continued to be held in Loudoun after the war, that he was elected sheriff of the county and also its treasurer. He was a principal founder and the first president of the Peoples National Bank of Leesburg which position he continued to occupy until his death in 1907. General Eppa Hunton in his autobiography has this to say of him: "No man in the Confederate Army stood higher for bravery, dash and patriotic devotion than Colonel 'Lige' White."