Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1277

Rh Troop formed an association, of which Lieutenant Sydnor has ever since held the rank of captain. At their meeting in 1896, thirty-one members answered the roll call, six of whom assisted in the organization of the company in 1858. Lieutenant Sydnor is also a member of R. E. Lee camp, Confederate Veterans, of Richmond, where he has resided since 1877.

Catlett Conway Taliaferro, commander of William Watts camp of United Confederate Veterans at Roanoke, Va., was born in Culpeper county in 1846. Though only a school boy in age at the outbreak of the war of the Confederacy, he had the spirit of a veteran, and left his studies at the Rappahannock academy in June, 1861, to become a trooper in the Ninth Virginia cavalry. After about one month's service with this command he was detailed for duty as a scout and courier, attached to the headquarters of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. He remained with this famous leader until his death, and soon after that event was detailed on similar duty at the headquarters of Gen. R. E. Lee. He served with the commander of the army of Northern Virginia until the end of the war, at Appomattox having the mournful duty of carrying the flag of truce. His military career was an active and honorable one. With Jackson's command he participated in the battles of First Manassas, Winchester, Port Republic, Cross Keys, the Seven Days before Richmond, Slaughter Mountain, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. As guide, scout and courier for the commander-in-chief, he took part in the battle of Gettysburg, the struggle at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House, the fighting about Richmond and the engagements at Trevilian's and Sailor's Creek. He was wounded at Cross Keys, at Seven Pines, at the bloody angle at Spottsylvania, and hit by a spent ball at Sharpsburg. At Sailor's Creek he was captured, but made his escape, and was paroled at Appomattox. Since the war he has resided in Virginia, and for ten years prior to his removal to Roanoke he served as mayor of the town of Hampden-Sidney.

John Winn Talley, commander in 1897 of Blue Ridge camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Buena Vista, Va., was born in 1844 in Buckingham county, but was reared from infancy in Cumberland county. In the spring of 1861 he was ambitious to join the Confederate army, and his parents objecting on account of his youth, he finally enlisted without their knowledge in the Black Eagle company, an organization formed previous to the war, and went with the company into camp at Richmond, where he was subsequently found by his father and Governor Letcher, and returned to his home. The young patriot pleaded so earnestly, however, to be permitted to join the army, that his father relented, and gave him permission to be enrolled in the Cumberland Troop, a famous organization of cavalry that had been noted for many years before the war, and was mustered in as Company G of the Third cavalry. He entered this command early in the summer of 1861, and soon saw service on the peninsula, where he was detailed as courier for General Cobb, of Georgia, for a short time. Subsequently, in the meantime having served with his company, he was promoted ordnance sergeant under Maj. G. M. Ryals, of Savannah, Ga., ordnance officer on the staff of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. In this capacity he served until Ryals was transferred to the staff of