Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1128

1056 served in battle for their State in years past, his great-grandfather Whitworth, having been a lieutenant in the war of the Revolution, his grandfather, Allen Archer, a captain in the war of 1812, and his uncle, F. H. Archer, a captain in the Mexican war and a colonel in the war between the United and Confederate States.

Colonel Emmett M. Morrison, of Smithfield, Va., who made a gallant record in the army of Northern Virginia, as commander of the Fifteenth Virginia regiment, Semmes' brigade, McLaws' division, Longstreet's corps, was born at the historic town where he now resides, August 21, 1841. His father was Edwin Morrison, a native of the county of Isle of Wight, and descendant of a long line of Virginia ancestors; his mother was Catherine Joyner, of the same county. He entered the Virginia military institute in 1860, and, upon the military organization of the State, entered the Virginia service as second lieutenant and was assigned to the work of drilling volunteers at Camp Lee. After six months of this duty he was sent to Jamestown island, where he served as adjutant of the post until the reorganization of the army, when he was elected captain of Company C of the Fifteenth infantry. Immediately joining his command at Yorktown, he participated in the battle of Williamsburg, and, during the following spring, was engaged in the fighting at Seven Pines, Savage Station, Frayser's Farm and Malvern Hill. In the latter engagement his regiment suffered the loss of its colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major and senior captain, either killed or wounded, and he was promoted major. In command of his regiment, at Sharpsburg, he bore himself with great bravery in the gallant charge made by his command on the extreme left of the army, driving a superior force of the enemy from their entrenchments and a mile beyond, putting an end to the Federal operations in that quarter. In this action half the officers and more than half the men were killed or wounded, and Captain Morrison, falling with a severe wound in the right shoulder, was captured by the enemy. He was held, as a prisoner, eight months at Baltimore, and, then being exchanged, returned to his command to take the rank of lieutenant-colonel, to which he had been promoted, to date from the battle of Sharpsburg. He served in this rank until about three months before the surrender, when he was promoted colonel. In the disaster at Sailor's Creek, early in April, 1865, he was again captured, and, being sent to Johnson's island, was held as a prisoner until August following, long after the close of hostilities. His life since then has been mainly devoted to educational work at Smithfield, where he has served a quarter of a century as principal of the Smithfield academy. During the same period he held the office of county surveyor and for twelve years served as county superintendent of schools. In 1894 he was appointed postmaster by President Cleveland. He was married, March 25, 1872, to Sarah A., daughter of the late Willis Wilson, a prominent citizen of the county, and has three sons, grown to manhood.

James W. Morton, of Orange Court House, Va., rendered his Confederate service as a member of the Fitzhugh Lee brigade of Stuart's cavalry. He was born in Orange county, November 8, 1844. When eighteen years of age, in the fall of 1862, when the line of battle between the great armies of Northern Virginia and the Potomac had been drawn along the Rapidan and Rappahannock,