Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1160

1084 of Malvern Hill, where his company suffered severe loss, and in the engagements at Warrenton Springs and Manassas in 1862. During the Maryland campaign, including the capture of Harper's Ferry and the battle of Sharpsburg, Private Oliver was detailed as courier on the staff of his brigade commander, General Armistead, and he continued in this duty until after the battle of Fredericksburg, when he was transferred as courier to the headquarters of the corps commander, General Longstreet. In this line of duty he participated in the Gettysburg campaign, the battle of Chickamauga, and the siege of Knoxville, Tenn., and after camping through the winter on the Sweetwater river, returned to Virginia and took part in the fighting at the Wilderness until General Longstreet was wounded. He was then granted a furlough for ninety days, but had passed but a third of this at Petersburg, when he reported to General Pickett's headquarters, and began a service with that general which continued until the surrender. For a time he was stationed at the headquarters of Colonel Carter, chief of transportation for the army. After he was paroled at Appomattox he returned to his occupation as a manufacturer at Portsmouth, and remained there until 1867, when he returned to Nansemond county and engaged in farming. He now has a valuable farm near Suffolk, is a valued citizen, maintains a membership in Tom Smith camp, Confederate Veterans, and is the present incumbent of the office of commissioner of revenue. In 1871 he was married to Martha, daughter of Jonathan Rodgers, and they have six children: Cora Lee, wife of John F. Lawrence, of Petersburg; Bertha May, instructor in an academy of North Carolina; Kemper J., Emory J., Floyd J., and Willie J.

Major John M. Orr, a prominent attorney of Leesburg, Va., was born in Loudoun county, February 8, 1820. He was educated at the university of Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1838, with the degree of A. M., after which he devoted himself for several years to the profession of civil engineering. In this work he was engaged until 1842 with the New York & Erie railroad company. He then decided to turn his attention to the profession of law, and returning to Virginia, entered upon the study and prepared himself for admission to practice in 1846. He embarked in this profession at Leesburg and continued in the practice there until the beginning of his military service. In 1850 he was elected mayor of Leesburg, and was retained in that position by successive re-elections until he was removed by military authority after the war. During this ante-war period, also, he was happily married to Orra, daughter of George Lee, of Leesburg. Two of the children of this union are now living. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in the Loudoun Guards as a private, but had served but a short time in that capacity when he was commissioned a captain in the Eighth regiment and assigned to duty in the commissary department. After the first battle of Manassas he was promoted brigade commissary upon the staff of Gen. N. G. Evans. Subsequently he was assigned to duty as post commissary at Millboro, and after some time spent at that place, was ordered to report to General Heth in Kentucky, as division commissary. He failed to reach General Heth, but joined General Leadbetter in that State, and was afterward made post commander at Greeneville, Tenn., and at