Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1310

1230 by General Mahone. Then sent out on cavalry service he met the enemy at Five Forks, and was again captured, and was not released until July, 1865. At the close of his service he held the rank of orderly-sergeant. Returning to his home he resumed farming, a retired veteran at the age of twenty. In 1878 he removed to Norfolk, and a year later became a member of the police force, and with the exception of four years, two of which were spent in the service of the city as street inspector, he has remained upon the force ever since. For his efficiency in this service he has been gradually promoted until he reached the rank of captain about four years ago. In 1869 Captain Vellines was married to Mary F., daughter of B. F. Wamble, a sea captain. He maintains a membership in the Pickett-Buchanan camp, United Confederate Veterans.

Major Andrew Reid Venable, one of the most gallant soldiers of the army of Northern Virginia, since the war engaged in the quiet vocation of a farmer in the vicinity of Richmond, was born in Prince Edward county, December 2, 1832. At the age of nineteen years he was graduated at Hampden-Sidney college, and then entered upon a mercantile career, going in 1856 to St. Louis to carry on a commission business. This was his occupation until the call for troops by President Lincoln in 1861, when he determined to return and offer his services to his native State. Reaching Richmond in June, he enlisted in the Third Howitzers at Yorktown, and served with that command as a private until just before the battle of Williamsburg, when the knowledge of his civil occupation and training led to his being called upon to serve as commissary for the Howitzer battalion. With this command, afterward enrolled as the First regiment Virginia artillery, he continued to hold the position of commissary, with the rank of captain, until the battle of Chancellorsville, when he was promoted and called upon for staff duty with some of the most brilliant cavalry commanders of the Confederacy. With Gen. J. E. B. Stuart he served as inspector-general, with the rank of major, until the commander was killed at Yellow Tavern, then assuming the same position on the staff of Gen. W. H. F. Lee for several months. Subsequently he was attached to the staff of Gen. Wade Hampton, until during the desperate attack upon the flank and rear of Hancock's division at Hatcher's Run, he fell into the hands of the enemy. As a prisoner of war he was sent to City Point and thence to the Old Capitol prison. While being transferred to Fort Delaware he made a daring escape by jumping from a car window while the train was approaching Philadelphia. Having some friends in the city he went to them on foot, and was secreted in the city and vicinity for a month, until it was thought to be safe for him to take the "underground railway" provided for such emergencies by warm friends of the South. Successfully passing the Federal lines he rode through Petersburg and reported to General Lee, who detailed him for service in southwest Virginia, in the reorganization of a demoralized cavalry command which had been reported as marauders. In this rough service he was engaged until about the first of March, 1865. After the surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston, he capitulated at Charlotte, N. C. A partial list of the battles in which Major Venable participated shows the famous names of Williamsburg, Seven Pines,