Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1177

Rh child of the second marriage of Thomas Peek is Jesse Hope Peek, M. D., now one of the leading physicians of Hampton, Va. He was born at that city July 3, 1854, and during the war was a refugee with his mother at Richmond, his native town having been laid in ruins. After the close of hostilities he was educated at Randolph-Macon college, and in 1875 was graduated in medicine at the university of Virginia. After a season of clinical work in the Baltimore hospitals, he began practice in 1876, and made his home at Hampton in 1879. Since then his progress has been rapid in the esteem of his people and professional associates. He has delivered some valuable lectures in the line of his profession, was elected a fellow of the State medical society in 1880, was one of the original members of the State medical examining board, is a member of the Hampton medical society, is physician to Dixie hospital, and a member of the board of pension examiners, by appointment of President Cleveland. July 1, 1880, he was married to Miss Clara Virginia Outten, of Elizabeth City county, and they have three children: Maria, Nellie and Charles K.

Captain Robert Baker Pegram, distinguished in the service of the Confederate navy, was born in Dinwiddie county, Va., December 10, 1811, the son of Gen. John Pegram and Martha Ward Gregory. On February 2, 1829, he was appointed midshipman in the United States navy, and assigned to the sloop-of-war Boston, commanded by Capt. George W. Storer. He was called home after more than a year's service by the death of his father, and a few months later he joined the frigate United States, of the Mediterranean squadron, and served under Coms. James Biddle and Daniel Patterson, until 1834, returning home on the John Adams. On this vessel, as passed midshipman, he started as sailing master, in 1835, on a cruise around the world which lasted three years. In 1840 he was engaged at Washington with Commodore Wilkes, on magnetic observations, and in the following year was assigned to the Constitution, with rank as lieutenant, to serve in relief of vessels in distress between Capes Cod and Hatteras. Subsequently he served three years as flag-lieutenant to Com. Foxhall A. Parker, in the East India squadron; participated in the operations against Mexico as first lieutenant of the Saratoga, David A. Farragut, commander; cruised in 1848-49 on the coasts of Brazil and Africa on the John Adams, returning with the wrecked crew of the Yorktown; and was then appointed commander of the City of New York and one of the commissioners to define the fishing boundaries off the coast of Newfoundland. In the Japan expedition he rendered gallant and conspicuous service as lieutenant of the ship Powhatan, in which he sailed in 1852. On August 4, 1855, in Hong Kong harbor, the American commodore being called on for assistance by the British sloop-of-war Rattler, Lieutenant Pegram commanded a detachment of eighty men from the Powhatan and forty from the Rattler, in an attack upon over thirty war junks manned by about three thousand pirates. Successful at the outset, in cutting off a large junk and driving it under the guns of the men-of-war, they continued the fight all day, the action resulting in the capture of sixteen junks, mounting one hundred cannon, and a loss of 600 men to the enemy. About 30 of American boats' crew were killed and wounded, and such was the desperate character of the