After the outbreak of war, Willis Dance was commissioned captain of the Powhatan Light Artillery on July 16, 1861.
His battery served in the First Virginia Light Artillery under J. Thompson Brown in the Maryland Campaign at the time of the Battle of Antietam, when the battery guarded a ford near Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and the Battle of Fredericksburg in BG William N. Pendleton’s artillery reserve.
[1] At Fredericksburg, Dance's battery sent guns to help Major John Pelham protect the far right of Stonewall Jackson’s corps.
[1] Brown's command served in the artillery reserve of Jackson's corps, under Col Stapleton Crutchfield at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Dance's guns were moved up to stall the Union advance while southern infantry was brought to plug the gap.
[8] Capt Dance was wounded at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm in September 1864 shortly after the fall of Fort Harrison.
His battery was instrumental in preventing the Union Army of the James from expanding its breakthrough of the Confederate defenses.