Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1071

Rh information for the Confederate cause. When released from this tedious detention, he went to Staunton, Va., late in 1862, and, in co-operation with others, formed an artillery company, of which he was elected first lieutenant. This was known as Lurty's battery and was assigned to the brigade of Gen. William L. Jackson. With this command he served two years, participating in the campaigns in the valley, mainly, and rendering effective aid to the movements which kept the valley for so long a time from the hands of the Federals. Among other fights in which he took part, may be mentioned Warm Spring Mountain, Winchester (1863), Lynchburg, Droop Mountain, near Charleston, after the campaign against Washington in 1864. During the action at Beverly, Randolph county, in the fall of 1864, he fell wounded by three bullets, which struck him almost simultaneously, and after that saw no more active service in the field, though he was destined to represent the Confederate cause in a less welcome capacity for a long time after the surrender of Lee. He was taken prisoner at Beverly, and, after lying in hospital at Grafton until he was able to be moved, was taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, and there held in the prison camp for six months. The remainder of his detention, until June, 1865, was spent at Fort Delaware. After his release Lieutenant Lorentz spent a few weeks at Baltimore and then removed to Allegheny Springs, Va., and engaged in the lumber business for three years. He subsequently resided at Christiansburg, Va., until 1889, following the mercantile trade and railroad contracting, after which he made his home at Washington. There he has met with a gratifying degree of success as a real estate broker and promoter of various business enterprises. In 1866 Mr. Lorentz was married to Emma L. Wade, daughter of the late John Wade, of Montgomery county, Va.

John F. Lotzia, now an influential citizen of Suffolk, achieved before he had reached the age of twenty-one years the record of a gallant veteran in the ranks of the Sixteenth Virginia regiment He was born at Suffolk, December 16, 1844, and was orphaned during infancy by the death of his father, John F. Lotzia. In the spring of 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company A of the Sixteenth regiment, just before the abandonment of Norfolk, after which he accompanied the regiment to Gordonsville and Charlottesville, and then returned to Richmond in time to take part in the Seven Days' campaign and fight at Malvern Hill, as a part of Mahone's brigade. After being stationed for a short time at Drewry's bluff, he joined in the northward movement of Longstreet's corps and went into the battle of Second Manassas, where his regiment lost heavily. Colonel Crump being killed and the first lieutenant of Company A mortally wounded, and all the staff officers wounded. During the Maryland campaign it was the duty of his regiment and brigade to check Franklin's corps of the Federal army at Crampton's Gap until Jackson could capture Harper's Ferry. History records with what great fortitude and sublime courage they performed this duty, inflicting tremendous loss upon the enemy, said to be equal to the numbers of the regiment in the fight. At last overpowered and surrounded, nearly all of his regiment were taken prisoners, himself among them. After a confinement at Fort Delaware, he was exchanged in time