Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1303

Rh a car of ammunition. Fourteen of the men were killed or mortally wounded, but Lieutenant Turner escaped with his life, though badly injured and disfigured. After he had recovered from this accident he became instructor in mathematics in a female seminary at Winchester, and held that position for two years. Then undertaking the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in 1869, and in the same year was elected to the legislature of Virginia, where he held a seat until 1872. For eight years he was a member of the board of visitors of the Virginia military institute, and for seven years served as commonwealth's attorney for his county. In 1893 he was elected to the Fifty-third Congress for the unexpired term of Governor O'Ferrall, and in 1894 was re-elected. He served in the regular and special sessions of the Fifty-fourth Congress, and in 1896 declined re-election and returned to his professional occupations, which he followed until his death, April 8, 1898.

D. Gardiner Tyler, son of John Tyler, ex-president of the United States, representative from the Second district of Virginia in the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses, was born in the year 1846, at East Hampton, Long Island, N. Y., while his mother was on a visit there to her relatives, but he has resided all his life at the family homestead on James river in Charles City county, Va. At the outbreak of the war he was thoroughly in sympathy with the spirit of the Confederacy, but his youth prevented him from serving at once in the field, whither his inclinations strongly drew him. In 1862 he entered Washington college at Lexington, Va. A few months later, however, the martial spirit which pervaded the youth of Virginia, led him to enlist in the Home Guards early in 1863, that he might be ready for any service required. As a member of this organization he engaged in the pursuit of the enemy in several raids made by them in that part of Virginia, and in June, 1864, participated in the fighting of the improvised army that checked the advance of the Federal General Hunter up the valley of Virginia, during which movement the Virginia military institute was burned and Washington college narrowly escaped destruction. He fought in the disastrous battle of Piedmont, June 5th, and the engagements of June 17th and 18th at Lynchburg, where the Federals were repulsed and retreated. After this he spent two or three weeks at the college, returning then to active service, and going with his company to Richmond, where they were detailed as guards at Libby prison. In August, 1864, he secured a transfer to the regular army and enlisted as a private in the Rockbridge battery of the First Virginia battalion of artillery, attached to Ewell's corps. With this command he served until the close of the war, taking part in the fights on the lines north of the James river, notably at Fort Harrison and Fort Gilmer, and on the retreat of Lee's army from Richmond was in the battle of Cumberland Church and other engagements, surrendering with his command at Appomattox Court House. After this serious introduction to the vicissitudes of life, in his nineteenth year, he returned to his devastated home. In the following October he went to Europe and pursued a course of classical studies at Carlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, for a period of two years. On his return to Virginia he entered Washington college again, then under the presidency of his old commander, General Lee, for the study of law, in which he was graduated in the year 1869.