Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1217

Rh Penick; and Huger's battery, Lieutenant Moore, and in this capacity he participated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Salem Church. When the march into Pennsylvania began he was on leave of absence, but he immediately set out to rejoin his command and reaching the field on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg, he took command of six guns, two from the Donaldsonville and four from Huger's battery, and participated in the fighting of July 2d and 3d. On the 4th he was ordered with his guns to join General Imboden, and in this duty he aided in repelling the attack of Buford and Kilpatrick upon the convoy of the wagon trains at Williamsport. After the army had awaited for three days an attack from Meade's army near Hagerstown, he was put in command of all the artillery of A. P. Hill's corps and ordered to conduct it across the Potomac, and then taking position on the Virginia heights he covered the crossing of the rear guard. In March, 1864, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. With his former command he participated in the campaign of May from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor. On May 10th, reinforced by Ellet's battery, he effectively co-operated with General Early in repelling the flank movement of General Hancock. During the siege of Petersburg he occupied for nine months the position known as Reeve's salient, confronted by Fort Sedgwick (Fort Hell), and flanked by Fort Mahone (Fort Damnation), a warm location, as the popular names of his immediate neighbors indicate. From this place he was withdrawn at midnight following March 29th, and stationed on the extreme right of the army, in a position "to be held at all hazards." There he was shot down, together with nine of the men of Huger's battery, and was carried from the field, the command devolving upon Major Grandy. The line was carried soon afterward, and the evacuation of Petersburg followed.

Sergeant James H. Richardson, of Portsmouth, a soldier of the Sixteenth Virginia regiment, Mahone's brigade, was born in Norfolk county in 1831, the son of John Richardson, a lumberman of that county, and a man of considerable prominence, who died in 1835. Mr. Richardson went to Portsmouth with his mother when he was seventeen years of age and thoroughly learned the trade of a ship and boat-builder, in which he was engaged until he entered the military service as a member of the Virginia Defenders, a Portsmouth company which was organized on the night of April 20, 1861, under Capt. Edward T. Blamire. When the United States forces abandoned the navy yard, Mr. Richardson was carried along as a prisoner to Old Point Comfort, but was released on the following morning, when he made his way back to Portsmouth from Hampton in an oyster boat. Then joining the company he served at Tanner's Creek until May, 1862, and subsequently, attached to Mahone's brigade, served in the Seven Days' campaign, especially at Malvern Hill. Afterward he was stationed successively at Fallen Creek, Richmond and Gordonsville, and served on the Rapidan, after which he participated in the battles of Second Manassas, Crampton's Gap and Sharpsburg, and closed the year by fighting at Fredericksburg. After spending the winter in camp at Petersburg, he moved to Chancellorsville in the spring, and thence marching into Pennsylvania, did his part