Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1261

Rh that it was doubtful if he could meet the physical requirements then insisted on in the selection of soldiers. Fully resolved, however, to do what he could, he enlisted in June, 1861, as a private in the Alexandria Rifles, an old organization of militia which in the following April was mustered into the service of the Confederate States as Company A of the Seventeenth Virginia regiment. At that time he was rejected on account of his physical disability, but he persisted on remaining with the company and served without pay as a volunteer until the reorganization of the army before Yorktown, in April, 1862. Then upon the advice of Surgeon M. M. Lewis, he enlisted in the Black Horse Troop, or Company H, of the Fourth Virginia cavalry. With this gallant command he served as a private throughout the remainder of the war, soon after his enlistment going into action in the fights at Williamsburg, Va., and vicinity. He was with the famous Black Horse Troop under Capt. W. H. Payne, afterward promoted general, and Capt. Robert Randolph, in Stuart's raid around McClellan's army in the Peninsular campaign, with them under Stonewall Jackson, and in all their engagements when not prevented by the many wounds he received in their numerous encounters with the enemy. He was first wounded in the action at Frayser's Farm, on the peninsula, June 30, 1862, receiving a severe injury. At Turkey creek he was again wounded, and again more severely at the second battle of Manassas, August 29, 1862. In the fall of 1862, at Liberty Mills, he was slightly wounded in the right foot, and in the spring of 1864 while on a scouting expedition near Warrenton, Va., received such severe gunshot wounds that the Federals, to whose mercies he was necessarily left, did not disturb him, the wounds being to all appearances mortal. With indomitable pluck he recovered from his injuries and rejoined his comrades, with whom he fought to the end, notwithstanding still further slight wounds received in the fall of 1864, near Nokesville, Va., where he distinguished himself by the capture of the stand of colors of the Fourteenth New York regiment, and in the spring of 1865, just before the evacuation of Petersburg, while participating in Coartz' raid in Dinwiddie county. He was paroled at Winchester in May, 1865, and then returned to his home in Alexandria, and embarked in civil affairs with the same energy and devotion to duty that characterized his career as a soldier. He has given no attention to political honors, has never held office, nor in fact voted but once in his life, that solitary act of franchise being a ballot for President Davis. He has devoted himself to business with great success, building up a great coal and fertilizing-manufacture industry that employs hundreds of men, at Alexandria. In all movements for the public good he is glad to take a part, so that he has been prominent in many useful directions which have brought to him the love and esteem of the community. A man of such a nature could not, after four years of comradeship in camp and fight, sever the ties which bound him to his fellows in the army of Northern Virginia. On the contrary he cherishes with all the strength of his nature the memories of perils past and the society of his comrades who have survived. In the organization of R. E. Lee camp, No. 2, of the Confederate Veterans, at Alexandria, he took an active part and was elected its first lieutenant commander, subsequently serving as its commander from 1886 to