Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1347

Rh given a furlough and permitted to regain his strength at home. He was not able to walk until March, 1864, and then, on crutches joined his command near Rapidan Station. He was detailed to the quartermaster's department until June following, when he again went to the front and found his comrades at Turkey Ridge, near Richmond. Subsequently he was stationed on the lines at Wilcox's farm before Petersburg, and was frequently engaged in battle, notably at Johnson's farm, on the Weldon railroad, and at the Crater. In the latter fierce encounter he was again wounded, being shot through the leg. A few weeks later, with indomitable devotion, he was again with his regiment, near Battery Forty-five, and participated in the fight of October 27th, and in the battle of Hatcher's Run, February 6, 1865. Ordered to the Howlett House line late in March, he soon afterward joined in the retreat, and after fighting his last battle at Cumberland church, was paroled at Appomattox, at that time holding the rank of orderly-sergeant. Mr. Whitehorne has been occupied in mercantile pursuits since the war, since 1867 at Petersburg, and since 1890 he has been a partner in one of the leading dry goods establishments of the city. He is a member of A. P. Hill camp, Confederate Veterans. Three of his children are living: Edward W., Nellie E. and James S.

Francis Milton Whitehurst, prominent in the legal profession at Norfolk, is a native of Princess Anne county, born December 1, 1835. His father, William Whitehurst, was a prosperous planter of Princess Anne county, who died in 1847, and was descended from one of the early and substantial families of Virginia, the ancestors coming from England to the Old Dominion in the seventeenth century. Judge Whitehurst was reared at the plantation in Princess Anne county, attending country schools, and at fourteen years of age he entered upon school life in Norfolk, Va., attending the Norfolk military academy and a private school, and the Baltimore commercial college. During the session of 1860-61 he studied in the law school of the university of Virginia, but left there immediately after the adoption of the ordinance of secession by the Virginia legislature, to enter the service of his State. He enlisted as a private in Company F, organized at Norfolk, which became Company G of the Sixth Virginia infantry. He served in the ranks until the battle of Chancellorsville, when he was appointed first lieutenant of a company which had been formerly commanded by Capt. Carter Williams. This rank he held during the campaigns and battles of his regiment until his capture during the fight which followed the explosion of the mine at Petersburg on July 31, 1864. His experience on this occasion is of especial interest as illustrating the desperate character of the struggle and the demoralization of the Federal troops. The Sixth Virginia regiment, forming a part of the brigade of General Mahone, was on the right in the charge and did not cover more than half of the front of the Crater. Most of the regiment being on picket duty they carried into the action a little over one hundred men, of whom eighty-five were killed, wounded or captured. Lieutenant Whitehurst and Captain Wright, of another company, leading the line on the right, reached the edge of the Crater, where Wright fell with a fatal wound. Whitehurst knelt by the