Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1150

1074 In February, 1863, Brig.-Gen. W. N. Pendleton, chief of artillery of the army of Northern Virginia, spoke of him in the following complimentary terms: "Maj. William Nelson, long in command of this battalion, is as gallant and efficient an officer as we have in his grade. He has served from the beginning of the war as captain and major, has exhibited courage of the highest order and a fidelity undeviating, and well deserves the rank of lieutenant-colonel." After Chancellorsville he received this promotion. At the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and the other battles that closed with Grant's disastrous repulse at Cold Harbor, Nelson's battalion was still conspicuous in the fore-front of the fight. When Early moved against Lynchburg, Nelson was with him and, through the subsequent advance down the valley and into Maryland, maintained his high reputation for courage and efficiency. In Early's reports of Monocacy, Winchester and Cedar Creek, Nelson's battalion has frequent and honorable mention, and down to the closing scenes of the illustrious army of Virginia, Nelson's artillery did its full duty on every field on which it had an opportunity to serve the cause of the South.

Virginius Newton, of a prominent Virginia family, and since the close of the Confederate war a distinguished citizen of Richmond, in his youth served in the great conflict as an officer of the Confederate States navy. He was appointed from North Carolina as acting midshipman September 30, 1861, and was promoted to midshipman, provisional navy, June 2, 1864. He was on duty at the Norfolk navy yard in 1861, after it came into the possession of the Confederate States, and being assigned to the steamer Beaufort, participated in the naval battle off Roanoke island in February, 1862, under Commodore Lynch. In the same gunboat, under command of Lieutenant Parker, he participated in the battle of Hampton Roads, March 8th and 9th, in which the principal Confederate participant was the ironclad ram Virginia, and the young midshipman was mentioned for gallantry by Lieutenant Parker and Admiral Buchanan. He was next on duty on the Confederate States gunboat Gaines, in Mobile bay, in 1862-63. He then went abroad for service in the Confederate cruisers purchased in Europe by Maury and Bulloch. He was one of the officers of the Rappahannock, which it was necessary to send to sea before completion, and entering the port of Calais was detained there, and then upon the ironclad cruiser Stonewall, purchased of Denmark. He was with the Stonewall when she offered battle to two Federal battleships off the coast of Spain, and in the voyage to Havana. Arriving at the latter port in May, 1865, the crew was disbanded, and Midshipman Newton subsequently returned to Virginia.

Joseph L. Norris, a prominent citizen of Leesburg, is a native of that city, born May 11, 1834. In the period before the war he completed his education and became engaged in business as a contractor and builder. From this occupation he was called, in 1861, by the invasion of the State, its secession, and the consequent war which was waged upon the soil of Virginia. With patriotic devotion he entered the service of the Confederacy in the fall of 1861 as a private in the Loudoun artillery, and served during the greater part of the war in the artillery arm of the Confederate forces, being