Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1157

Rh in command of his regiment and all the Confederate cavalry in the lower valley, and just at dawn on the morning after the surrender of Lee, with forty-eight men, he attacked a Federal camp of over three hundred cavalry near Woodstock, completely routing them and capturing many horses and some prisoners. His regiment with him in command held the last line, fought the last fight and captured the last prisoner on Virginia soil; and when he received, under a flag of truce from General Hancock, commanding the Federal forces at Winchester, news of the surrender of Lee, with volunteers from his regiment, he started to join Johnston's army, but before he could reach it Johnston surrendered. During his adventurous career he was eight times wounded. After the close of hostilities he prepared himself for the practice of law, graduated at Washington college, of which Robert E. Lee was president, and began his professional labors at Harrisonburg. At the same time he gave much of his time and energy to those political duties which the commonwealth in her distress required from her sons, who could effectively assist in the solution of the difficult problems of that period. In this field his abilities were promptly recognized and he was called to positions of the highest importance. He was elected to the legislature from Rockingham county in 1871, subsequently was chosen judge of the county court for six years, and at a later date was six times nominated for Congress, virtually by acclamation, and returned each time by a large majority. During the Forty-eighth Congress he was assigned to the committee on commerce; in the Forty-ninth he was chairman of the committee on mines and mining, and through four congresses was on the elections committee, of which he was chairman for two terms and when he resigned to become governor. Speaker Crisp was his associate on the commerce and elections committees for six years, and a warm friendship existed between these two distinguished representatives of the South. On August 17, 1893, he was nominated by the Democrats for governor of Virginia, was elected by an overwhelming vote and took his seat January 1, 1894. Four years later he retired from the office, after a successful administration, and resumed the practice of law at Richmond.

Captain William W. Old, a prominent attorney of Norfolk, rendered conspicuous service throughout the entire war in the armies of the Confederacy. He is a notable example of the sons of the old families of Virginia, thoroughly American and devotedly Virginian, whose intelligence and bravery adorn the record of the great struggle. He was born in Princess Anne county, November 17, 1840, the son of Jonathan Whitehead Old, and a lineal descendant of Edward Old, who settled in Lower Norfolk county, Va., early in the seventeenth century. During the Indian wars previous to the Revolution, and in that struggle itself, members of his family gallantly served the commonwealth. Thomas Old, of that period, and his kinsman, James Tooley, were members of the committee of safety in Princess Anne county during the war of independence. His mother, Elizabeth Anne Whitehurst, connects him with another old and honorable Virginia family. Her father, Col. William Whitehurst, was for many years the presiding justice of Princess Anne by commission from the governor. Captain Old studied in his youth at the Norfolk academy, then under the superintendence