Claim: Colonel David A. Weisiger was the first commanding officer recruited at Petersburg in  the 12th Virginia Infantry.
Evidence: David A. Weisiger began his Confederate Civil War service shortly after Lincoln's election, when he accepted a commission as a major in the 4th Infantry Battalion of the Virginia Militia, replaced as the 39th Regiment's commanding officer by Colonel John M. Davenport, who celebrated the occasion and his new officer comrades in January.