Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1306

1226 as a courier for his brigade commander, General Rosser, in May, 1864, and continued in the latter capacity until the last three months of the war, when he was attached to the command of Colonel Mosby, with whom he served to the end and surrendered. Before his detail as courier for the brigade commander he served in the same capacity at the famous battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and the Wilderness campaign, with Gen. R. E. Lee's headquarters. With Rosser he participated in the operations in West Virginia in 1864. He was also with Rosser as courier in the famous cattle raid of Wade Hampton in the rear of Grant's lines south of James river. Notwithstanding his active service he was captured by the enemy but once, and then managed to escape after about an hour's captivity. After the end of the struggle he returned to Loudoun county, and found occupation as a clerk in the establishment of Col. E. V. White, his old commander. When the latter was elected sheriff of the county, in 1868, Mr. Vandevanter was enabled to continue his intimate relations with the gallant colonel by appointment to the office of deputy sheriff. Subsequently he was appointed railroad agent at Hamilton, but after three years' service he retired from that position to engage in farming, in which he was occupied until 1895, when his standing and influence as a citizen of Loudoun county were appropriately recognized by his election to the office of county treasurer. He is a valued member of Clinton-Hatcher camp, and of the Masonic order. Dr. Joseph Vandevanter, brother of the foregoing, was born in Loudoun county February 6, 1847. In the fall of 1864 he enlisted in Company D of the cavalry command of Colonel Mosby, and served with credit during the remainder of the war. Subsequently he engaged in the study of medicine at the university of Virginia and the university of Maryland, and after receiving his professional degree practiced the profession for three years in Loudoun county. Since then he has been engaged in a successful practice at Ishpeming, Mich., where he is attached to mining companies as surgeon.

James Vass, of Danville, who had an interesting career in the army of Northern Virginia, was born in Culpeper county October 15, 1841. His father, S. M. Vass, who married Susan, daughter of George and Sallie Battaile (Dade) Fitzhugh, was the son of James Vass, a native of Scotland and son of a daughter of the Cumming clan, who came to America during the Revolutionary war, and married a daughter of Col. Abram Maury, first cousin of Matthew F. Maury. On April 17, 1861, young Vass enlisted as a private in the Culpeper Minute Men, a company which was assigned to Col. A. P. Hill's regiment, the Thirteenth Virginia infantry. He served with this command in the valley and at Manassas, and in March, 1862, was transferred to the famous Black Horse cavalry troop. After being with this troop one year as a private, he was detached as a scout and courier in which capacity he was for two years closely associated with Generals Lee, Jackson and Stuart. While on cavalry duty and attached to headquarters he participated in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' campaign, Second Manassas, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Yellow Tavern, Five Forks and Sailor's Creek and many smaller affairs. On the eve of the second battle of Manassas he was