Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1167

Rh the maintenance of the army. The fact that he never had any difficulty in obtaining the full legal share from each farmer, and frequently was told to help himself to what he needed, illustrates the generous devotion of the people. In the fall of 1864 young Parker, whose efficient services had attracted the attention of his superiors, was granted an examination for the army service, and was assigned to Company C of the Seventeenth North Carolina regiment, as a private. Soon afterward he was detached as a provost guard at Weldon, N. C., where he remained until the close of the war. He then found himself penniless and with his life career yet to choose. He worked at farming until August, 1866, when he began an apprenticeship of over three years in the carpenter's trade at Goldsboro, N. C. He subsequently attended school, and after that was in the service of the Wilmington & Weldon railroad as brakeman and later as freight conductor. From 1872 he was for twenty years mainly associated with railroad work, as foreman for a contractor, car inspector and employe in the cabinet shops, latterly with the Richmond & Danville road, at Richmond. Since 1892 he has conducted with much success an establishment of his own as general mechanic at Hampton. In its management he has displayed both mechanical genius and a fine business ability. He maintains his Confederate comradeship as a member of R. E. Lee camp, No. 3. He was married in 1867 to Lear A. Green, who died in 1871, leaving one child, Walter L., and in 1880 he married Ella M. De Berry.

Joseph A. Parker, now a leading business man at Portsmouth, Va., had an adventurous career during the war of the Confederacy as a member of Captain McNeil's command, which rendered famous service in the northern valley and along the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, at times keeping ten thousand Federal soldiers on guard in that region. He was born at Portsmouth September 7, 1841, and was educated at St. Mary's college, Maryland, where he spent four years in study. In July, 1864, he left there with six student companions to enter the Confederate service. He, with two of his comrades, joined McNeil's command at Moorefield, and served with it to the end. John H. McNeil, their leader, was a Virginian, but for several years had been a resident of Missouri, and had had some military experience in Kansas. In 1861 he had returned to his native region, and organized an independent command of two hundred and fifty men, which contained spirited and adventure-loving men from nearly every trade, business and profession. In the fall of 1864, a rumor reached them that Sheridan had been defeated by Early and was in full retreat, and their numbers being increased by stragglers, they moved to burn the Crawfordsville bridge on the Shenandoah to cut off Sheridan's retreat. On the following day, during a skirmish with a Federal picket, McNeil was shot down by one of the stragglers, whom he had refused permission to accompany the squad to burn the bridge. It was afterward learned that the straggler was a Federal spy, but his deed of assassination was seen by no one but the victim, and he strangely requested his men, before his death, not to punish his murderer. Meanwhile the assassin escaped. Jesse, the son of Captain McNeil, now assumed command, as first lieutenant, but on account of his youthfulness and inexperience, some advocated uniting the