Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1238

1160 to enroll himself with the defenders of the Confederate cause. He enlisted in October, 1861, as orderly-sergeant of Company B, made up entirely of Marylanders, in the Thirty-fifth Virginia battalion, under command of Col. E. V. White. With this gallant command he participated in all the engagements that fell to its lot, except during a period of six months, when he was disabled by a dangerous and painful wound, a gunshot through the lung, received at the battle of Brandy Station. As soon as he was fit for duty, after this injury, he returned to his battalion and remained with it until the end of the struggle. Subsequently he made his home at Leesburg, being contented to remain in the commonwealth for which he had fought, and engaged in the mercantile business, and was married to Miss Mary L. Mott, a daughter of Dr. A. L. Mott, of that city, a prominent physician and honored Confederate veteran. In the years that have elapsed Mr. Sellman has prospered in business and in all his enterprises. After eighteen years' connection with trade, he retired from that occupation. For several years he has served efficiently as secretary of the Loudoun county agricultural society. He is a member of Clinton Hatcher camp, United Confederate Veterans, and cherishes the memories of the Confederate cause.

Lieutenant Thomas Middleton Semmes, who since the war has held the chair of modern languages at the Virginia military institute, is a native of the Old Dominion, born in Caroline county in 1840. He received his preparatory education at Richmond, then entered the military institute, where he was graduated in 1860. In July, 1861, he entered the service of the Confederate States with the rank of first lieutenant, and was assigned to duty as adjutant of the Third Arkansas regiment of infantry. In this capacity he served until October 4, 1861, when he was transferred to the staff of Gen. Henry R. Jackson, with whom he served as ordnance officer, until about the first of January, 1863, he was ordered by Gen. R. E. Lee to return to the Virginia military institute and assume the duties of the professorship which he still holds. There during the remainder of the struggle for the defense of the Confederacy he rendered valuable and important services in the education and preparation of cadets for military service. With them, also, he rendered active military service on occasions, notably at the battle of New Market in the valley, where the cadets formed an important part of the Confederate forces and were particularly distinguished for the part they took in winning a victory. Other engagements in which he took part during his service with the army were those at Greenbrier river, October 3, 1861, in the West Virginia campaign, Allegheny mountain and McDowell. Since the close of hostilities Professor Semmes has held continuously the chair at the institute to which he was assigned by the board of visitors in 1863, and during this long educational service has done a noble work, and taken no small part in that heroic and magnificent effort which has raised Virginia to her present high station out of the ashes and desolation of war.

Major Joseph C. Sexton, of Wytheville, at the close of the war a member of the staff of Gen. John B. Gordon, was born at Wytheville, November 26, 1833. Here he was reared and educated, and given a training in the saddlery business which was established by his grandfather who came to Virginia in 1790, and which he has conducted throughout his business life, except when engaged in the