Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1191

Rh, a farmer and miller of Nansemond, was many years a public official, serving as county surveyor, and for forty years as magistrate. The father of the latter was Drewry Phillips, a native of Isle of Wight county, in his time a teacher of considerable fame, and he was the son of John Phillips, of Prince George county. Dr. Edward Phillips was educated in the classical school at his father's residence until he had reached the age of seventeen, when he entered the medical department of Hampden-Sidney college, now the Virginia medical college, where he received the degree of doctor of medicine in 1850. During the eleven years that elapsed before the outbreak of war he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Chuckatuck, Nansemond county, and had acquired a considerable reputation as a skillful physician. He entered the service as surgeon of the Fifty-ninth Virginia infantry regiment, and was with that command during the year 1861. In 1862 he entered the medical service of the Confederate States army, and was first stationed at the Howard's Grove small-pox hospital, and subsequently at various hospitals until he was ordered to Hick's Ford for duty on the medical examining board. Here he was actively engaged in the recruiting service of the army until about the time of the surrender at Appomattox, when he was ordered to report to the medical director of the army of Northern Virginia at Lynchburg, Va., or Greensboro, N. C. Then attempting to unite with the other Confederate forces he made his way to Raleigh. When Sherman entered that city he applied for rations and transportation to his home, which were granted. Since then Dr. Phillips has been almost constantly engaged in the work of his profession, honorably rounding out a career of half a century, full of honor and good deeds. He practiced at Chuckatuck until 1874, then served two years at Norfolk as agent of the State grange, resumed the practice at Smithfield, and from the latter place removed to Suffolk in 1882. He is widely known as a physician and has an extensive practice. He is prominent in the Masonic order as a Knight Templar, member of the grand lodge of Virginia for forty years, and for two terms district deputy grand master. In 1851 he was married to Virginia Ricks, who died in the following year, and in 1859 he married Mary M., daughter of Richard H. Riddick, in his lifetime prominently connected with the Albemarle swamp land company. By this marriage two children are living: Mary Claude, wife of A. H. Baker, sheriff of Nansemond county, and Julia R.

George E. S. Phillips, of Berryville, Va., a veteran of Stuart's horse artillery, was born in Cecil county, Md., in 1835. He was reared and educated in his native State, coming to Virginia in 1852, and making his home in Jefferson county. He was a member of the Virginia militia at Charlestown prior to the Confederate era. When Col. R. Preston Chew organized at Charlestown the first company of mounted artillerymen in the Confederate service, Mr. Phillips enlisted in this command as a private. He was promoted sergeant in May, 1862, the position in which he served during the remainder of the war. He was with Ashby's cavalry through the Valley campaign of 1862, and at Kernstown fired the shell, a fragment of which broke the arm of Federal General Shields; took part in the Manassas campaign, and shared the honors of the heroic