Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1163

Rh Other engagements in which he participated during his military career were those of Monticello, with the warship at Sewell's Point, Fayette Court House, Princeton, W. Va., Early's Valley campaign and Knoxville, Tenn. On March 2, 1865 during the disaster which befell the remnant of Early's army at Waynesboro, he was captured by the Federals, and after this until June, 1865, was confined as a prisoner of war at Fort Hamilton. On returning to Virginia he resumed the duties of his profession as civil engineer, and became distinguished not only for his technical skill, but for remarkable ability as a business man and an organizer and executive of important enterprises. Among other notable undertakings he has carried to success, the most prominent is the organizing and building of the Lynchburg & Durham railroad. In 1894 he was elected to Congress from the Sixth Virginia district by a handsome plurality, and in 1896 and 1898 was honored by re-elections.

William Thomas Owen, of Powhatan county, is deserving of mention as illustrating that important element of the army of Northern Virginia that represented families of recognized worth and patriotic records, and added heroic deeds to the treasured memories of their ancestral lines. He was the son of Richard Johnson Owen, a native of Appomattox county, whose father was Elisha Owen, a soldier of the Revolutionary war who was with the army at Yorktown. William Owen, the father of the latter, was also a native of Virginia. Richard Johnson Owen married Narcissa Langsdon, of French-Huguenot descent, daughter of Benjamin Langsdon, a wealthy planter and slave-holder, who freed all his slaves prior to the war of the Revolution. William Thomas Owen enlisted for Virginia in the spring of 1861, and became a sergeant in the company of Captain Mosby in the famous legion of Gen. Henry Wise. He shared the services of this command until, in the spring of 1864, he fell near Drewry's bluff in the gallant repulse of Butler's advance on Richmond. A brother of this martyr to the cause of Southern independence, Austin Everett Owen, D. D., is now a prominent member of the Baptist ministry, and has done a noble work in the advancement of the South since the war. Dr. Owen was pursuing theological studies at Richmond college when the institution was closed in May, 1861. He then went to Brunswick county where he served in the Baptist pastorate for ten years. In 1871 he was called to Court street church, Portsmouth, where his ministry of a quarter of a century, and more, has resulted in great good. His church has become one of the leading Baptist churches of the South, with a membership of five hundred and sixty. It has one of the finest auditoriums of the country, as well as a handsome chapel. Dr. Owen has held the positions of trustee of the southwest Virginia institute, vice-president of the general association of Virginia, moderator of the Portsmouth association, and president of the pastors' organizations in Norfolk and Portsmouth, and is now president of the general association of Virginia. He is trustee of Ryland institute, Berkley, and of Richmond college; corresponding secretary of the foreign board of the general association of Virginia, and for ten years vice-president for Virginia of the foreign board of the southern Baptist convention. He was one of the founders and editor for two years of the Atlantic Baptist, and has contributed important articles to other religious