Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1174

1098 has led a retired life in his comfortable home at Norfolk, resting at the close of an existence of remarkable activity and usefulness. He has devoted much time to a plan to extend the inland navigation south, and hopes to live to make a trip from Duluth via the lakes to Buffalo and thence through the Erie canal to New York and south inland to Florida.

Captain Richard S. Parks, of Luray, Va., was born in Rappahannock county, June 4, 1839. After receiving an education in his native county he removed to Luray, studied law and was admitted to the bar early in 1861. The war coming on, his prospect of forensic contests was changed to one of battle in the field. He entered the service in April, 1861, as second lieutenant of Company K, Tenth Virginia infantry. His regiment. Col. S. A. Gibbons commanding, was assigned to the brigade of General Johnston's army in the Shenandoah valley, which was commanded then by E. Kirby Smith, and included among its regimental commanders Arnold Elzey, George H. Steuart, John C. Vaughn and A. P. Hill. At the reorganization in 1862 Lieutenant Parks was elected captain, the rank in which he served until the spring of 1864, when he was honorably discharged on account of wounds and disability. He participated in the battle of First Manassas, and during the Valley campaign of 1862 fought at McDowell, Cross Keys and Port Republic. During Jackson's campaign on the Chickahominy he received a severe wound in the foot which practically put an end to his service on the field. Previously he had received two slight wounds while fighting at First Manassas under the leadership of General Elzey. During his service he was twice captured, but on each occasion managed to escape. A distinguished member of Captain Parks' company was Charles F. Crisp, who afterward occupied the exalted station of speaker of the national house of representatives. Charley Crisp, as his youthful comrades knew him, enlisted in Captain Parks' company at its organization and served to the end. Captain Parks wears a watch which was presented him by the lamented speaker, and the memorial volume published by authority of Congress contains an appreciative account of the statesman's military service from the pen of his old captain, embodied in the address by Hon. Henry St. George Tucker. After his retirement from the service Captain Parks returned to Luray and for about two years was occupied in teaching school. Then he embarked in the practice of law, for which he had prepared himself before the war, and in this profession is still actively engaged. Since 1883 he has held the office of commonwealth attorney for Page county, and in 1895-96 and 1897-98 he served in the Virginia legislature. In February, 1861, he was married to Miss B. M. Grayson, and they have two daughters.

Richard L. Parry, a prominent architect and builder, of Washington, is a native of Virginia, which he served faithfully during the war of the Confederacy, in the field and in the prison camp at the North. He was born in Middlesex county in November, 1839, and was reared to the age of seventeen years in Essex county. He then was apprenticed to the trade of the carpenter at Richmond and served in this apprenticeship for four years. In April, 1861, when the State had declared its adherence to the Confederacy, he unlisted in the Taylor Greys, a volunteer organization which