Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1082

1016 career. James Z. McChesney, a brother of the foregoing, was born in Rockbridge county, in 1843. After attending one session of Washington college he entered the Virginia military institute in January, 1862, and, in May following, accompanied the corps of cadets to the battlefield of McDowell, where they participated in the fight, attached to the Stonewall brigade. Returning to the institute, he left there in July and, just before the second battle of Manassas, enlisted as a private in the Seventeenth battalion of Virginia cavalry, afterward the Eleventh cavalry regiment, Rosser's brigade. In August, 1863, he was transferred to the Fourteenth Virginia cavalry, in the brigade of Gen. A. G. Jenkins. Among the battles in which he participated in the course of his military career were, Second Manassas, Gettysburg, Monocacy, the skirmish before Washington, D. C., Hagerstown, Brandy Station, Moorefield, Fairmount, Petersburg, North Mountain Station, and the operations against the Lynchburg raid of Hunter. With the latter engagements was begun a period of constant fighting, which lasted until October, 1864, when, in an exhausted condition, he was seized with typhoid fever, which put an end to his service. In the summer of 1865 he was paroled at Staunton, and then returned to his home in Rockbridge county and was engaged in farming until his removal to Charleston, W. Va., in 1869.

Tazewell M. McCorkle, since 1891 pastor of the Third Presbyterian church at Lynchburg, served with credit as third lieutenant in Hampden-Sidney Boys, and afterward as private in First Rockbridge artillery, Confederate army. He was born at Lynchburg, June 5, 1837, and was reared at that city and educated at the Washington-Lee and Hampden-Sidney colleges. In May, 1861, he left college with the students to enter the Confederate service, their company being assigned to the Twentieth Virginia infantry regiment, as Company G. With this command he served in the West Virginia campaign of 1861, under General Garnett and Colonel Pegram, until he was captured at Rich Mountain, early in July. He was held as a prisoner in the barracks at that post two or three weeks and then paroled. During the period of his parole he entered the Union theological seminary in Prince Edward county and studied in preparation for the ministry until the spring of 1863, when, having been regularly exchanged, he re-entered the Confederate ranks as a private in the First Rockbridge artillery, the old company of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. In this command he served until the close of the war, participating in the fighting of his battery, including the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Second Cold Harbor, Tilghman's Gate (where their guns were captured), and Fort Harrison. He was subsequently sent to Farmville with a detail of sick soldiers, and, when the army was surrendered, was on duty at Rough Creek, Charlotte county. Upon the close of hostilities he made his home at Lynchburg, and, after farming for a time in Roanoke county, he entered the Presbyterian ministry. In this work his ability and zealous devotion are widely recognized and he enjoys the love and esteem of his people.

Captain William N. McDonald, during life a distinguished educator, was born in Hampshire county, now within the limits of West Virginia, February 3, 1834. He is a son of Col. Angus