Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1352

1266 physician and surgeon. In 1885 he was elected a member of the medical examining board of Virginia, and after four years' service was re-elected, but resigned soon afterward. In 1889 he held the position of president of the medical society of Virginia. During Governor McKinney's administration, he was appointed to the commission to investigate the State lunatic asylum. In these and other ways he has been assured of the high respect in which he is held as a professional man and as a citizen. A brother of the foregoing, Benton Wiley, also of Salem, Va., was in the Confederate service from 1863 until the close of the war.

Robert Wiley, of Fairfax, a Virginian who did honorable service in a Georgia regiment, was born in Fairfax county in 1840. He was reared there and educated, also having the advantage of educational institutions in Washington City, and in 1861, having reached his majority, found the most attractive career open to him to be that of a soldier in the Confederate army. He entered the service in September, 1861, and was on duty as a scout until March, 1862. He then enlisted as a private in Company K of the Nineteenth Georgia regiment, and did not see his home again from that date until May 20, 1865. But during this long absence from home he became greatly attached to his commanders. Gens. Wade Hampton, A. J. Archer and Alfred H. Colquitt, who commanded successively in the order named, and the comrades of his Georgia regiment. With this command he participated in the battles of Williamsburg, West Point, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' battles, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Ox Hill, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Olustee and Drewry's Bluff. He also served in the defense of Yorktown and the defense of Charleston, S. C. After the Seven Days' battles he was promoted sergeant, and he was afterward tendered the adjutancy, but was compelled to decline on account of disability from wounds. He was wounded three times in the Seven Days' struggle, but remained in the field, was again wounded at Olustee, Fla., and the last time at Drewry's bluff, so severely that he was incapacitated from May 16, 1864, to February 9, 1865. His experience as a prisoner of war was fortunately of only four days' duration, following the battle of Fredericksburg. Returning to the field in February, 1865, he was with Johnston's army until the surrender, after which he went to his home, carrying with him a Mexican dollar given him at the capitulation. This, which was his entire capital at that time, he still treasures as a souvenir of those days of gloom. He engaged in farming, in which he has ever since been interested, but his ability was soon recognized by appointment to responsible positions. He has served as commissioner of revenue, as magistrate, and as deputy county treasurer for ten years, and is now holding for the second term the office of county treasurer. He is a member of Marr camp, Confederate Veterans, and of the Methodist church South. On June 26, 1867, he was married to Mary E. Lee, of Fairfax, and they have seven children.

William S. Wilkinson, of Danville, a veteran of the Amelia cavalry, was born in Amelia county, September 26, 1836. He is the son of Pleasant and Virginia (Forsee) Wilkinson, natives of Chesterfield county, who gave two other sons to the Confederate army: Edward Thomas, who died in the service, and Robert E., who