Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1094

1024 or non-commissioned, who was permitted by the fortunes of war to serve with the company from enlistment to the end. He was born in Ireland, June 5, 1833, the son of Dennis and Sarah Jane (Patton) McLees, with whom he came to America in 1837, and settling first at Brooklyn, removed to Charles City county, Va., in 1852. There his father died in 1872 and his mother in 1878. He assisted in the organization of the Charles City Southern Guard, in May, 1860, and entered the active service on May 9, 1861, as corporal of this command, which was assigned as Company K to the Fifty-third Virginia regiment of infantry, of Armistead's brigade, Pickett's division. His first service was at Jamestown, until August, 1861, then at Mulberry Point until the evacuation of the peninsula, when his company was called to Richmond and participated in the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days' battles. Subsequently he fought at Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chester Station and Five Forks, and every other engagement of Pickett's division, except at Drewry's Bluff, when he was in hospital at Richmond on account of wounds received at Gettysburg and Chester Station. After being wounded at Gettysburg he was captured on the retreat and was held as a prisoner of war for seven weeks. He was again captured at Five Forks and was imprisoned at Point Lookout until June 15, 1865. At the time of capture he held the rank of orderly-sergeant of his company. The killing of the color-sergeant of Mr. McLees' company, in the charge at Gettysburg, with the colors in his hand, has been a subject of historical mention, and the name of this hero, according to Mr. McLees' recollection, is Blackburn. Since the close of hostilities Mr. McLees has resided in James City county and, since 1882, at Williamsburg. He is a member of Magruder-Ewell camp, United Confederate Veterans.

B. F. McLemore, of Courtland, Va., since 1883 clerk of the county court of Southampton county, rendered efficient service during the Confederate war as an officer of Company G, Third Virginia regiment. He was born in Southampton county in 1843, the son of James and Mattie M. (Barclay) McLemore. His father, James McLemore, a farmer and native of Virginia, was the son of James McLemore, a native of Scotland, who served with the American troops in the war of 1812. His mother was the daughter of John Barclay, of North Carolina, a man of much prominence in his county and a member of the State senate. Mr. McLemore received an education in the schools of his county, but abandoned his studies, in the spring of 1861, and enlisted as third sergeant in Company G of the Third Virginia regiment. During 1861 he was stationed with his company in the vicinity of Smithfield and left there in March, 1862, to reinforce General Magruder at Yorktown. He participated in the fighting with McClellan's army, including the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Savage Station and Frayser's Farm, and then took part in the Second Manassas campaign, the capture of Harper's Ferry and the battle of Sharpsburg. At Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he participated in the final repulse of Burnside's troops and, in February following, accompanied Longstreet's corps to southeastern Virginia and North Carolina. In the charge of Pickett's division, on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, he, having been previously