Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/666

626 Beauregard desired to adopt. Subsequently Senator Chestnut, who had served on an intimate footing with Mr. Davis in the United States Congress, was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of the President, with rank of colonel of cavalry, and he held this position until commissioned brigadier-general in April, 1864, when he took command of a brigade on the coast of South Carolina. In 1868 he was a delegate to the national Democratic convention.

John Taylor Wood, aide-de-camp, staff of the President, was born at Fort Snelling, N. W. T., in 1831. His father was Surgeon General Robert C. Wood, of the United States army; his mother a daughter of President Zachary Taylor and sister of the first wife of President Davis. He entered the United States navy as a midshipman in 1847, served during the Mexican war on the Ohio and Brandywine, and in 1861 was assistant professor of seamanship and gunnery at Annapolis. Resigning his commission, he entered the service of Virginia, and was assigned to duty with the batteries at Evansport and Aquia Creek, blockading the Potomac. He was commissioned lieutenant in the Confederate navy October 4, 1861, and in January following was ordered to the Virginia, then preparing for service. He selected the volunteers for the crew from Magruder’s soldiers; in the two days fight in Hampton Roads, commanded the after-pivot gun; received the surrender of the Congress; and presented Commodore Buchanan’s verbal report to President Davis. After the destruction of the Virginia, he was conspicuous as commander of the sharpshooters in the repulse of the Federal fleet at Drewry’s Bluff, and subsequently received the appointment to the President s staff, with the rank of colonel of cavalry. He organized numerous boat expeditions against the enemy on Chesapeake bay and tributary waters, and inspected the Confederate water defenses on