Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1095

Rh promoted first sergeant, was left the ranking officer of his company by the killing or wounding of all his superior officers. Among the heroic band which entered the Federal lines on Cemetery ridge, he was taken prisoner and afterward confined at Fort McHenry and Point Lookout until May, 1864. He was soon afterward exchanged, and he then rejoined his command at Dutch Gap and continued to serve in the defense of Richmond and Lynchburg until the evacuation, also during the winter of 1864 holding the position of chief clerk of an official examining board. He took part in the battle of Hatcher's Run and, after fighting at Dinwiddie Court House and Five Forks, marched with his company to Appomattox and at the time of the surrender was its ranking officer. Though participating in many fierce engagements, he escaped with but two slight wounds. After the war he engaged in farming in Southampton county, until 1887, when he was elected clerk of the county court. He has also served as deputy treasurer and deputy sheriff. He is a member of the camp of Confederate Veterans and of several fraternal orders. In 1865 he was married to Rosa, daughter of James D. Westbrook. She died in 1894, leaving six children: J. L., an attorney at Suffolk; William T., a student of medicine; H. B., Mattie, wife of Thomas H. Birdsong; Josephine, wife of H. W. Bowen; and Pearl.

James Macgill, since the war a resident of Pulaski City, Va., is a native of Maryland, born at Hagerstown, December 24, 1844. He was one of those spirited sons of Maryland who, with his three brothers, C. G. W., William D. and David G. E., enlisted in arms for the defense of their sister State, Virginia, when their own commonwealth was overrun by the Federal armies. The two latter enlisted in Company C, First Maryland cavalry, and Dr. C. G. W. was surgeon of the Second Virginia infantry, Stonewall brigade. Dr. Charles Macgill, the father of the four boys, was arrested, with the Maryland legislature, in 1861, as he was major-general of the Maryland militia at the time and was looked upon as a dangerous man by the secretary of war of the United States. He was kept in prison at Fort Warren, Boston harbor, until early in 1863, when he came South and served as full surgeon in the C. S. A. until the surrender. In June, 1861, James Macgill became a private in Company C, First Maryland cavalry, under Capt. Robert Carter Smith, who later succeeded Col. Ridgely Brown in command of the regiment. Private Macgill was identified with the record of that chivalrous band of troopers throughout the war, serving in many battles and skirmishes. He was with Jackson in the famous Valley campaign of 1862, rode under the leadership of the gallant J. E. B. Stuart in many raids and heroic charges, participated in the Gettysburg campaign, and shared the service of the Maryland Line in 1864, with Early in the valley and through Maryland, and with Hampton at Trevilian's. While the army was lying in the Petersburg lines, during the latter part of 1864 and until the evacuation of the Confederate capital, he was detailed for duty with the topographical engineers, and rendered important service in that capacity in Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, Amelia and Dinwiddie counties. After the evacuation of Petersburg, he returned to Baltimore and was there imprisoned during the excitement which followed the assassination of President Lincoln, from April 18th