Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1358

1272 while engaged in the service of the Confederate States. Early in 1861 he enlisted in the Norfolk Juniors, a company which was mustered in as Company H of the Twelfth Virginia infantry. He was with his command at Norfolk until the evacuation, when he went with his command by way of Petersburg and Richmond into the Peninsular campaign and fought under Lee at Seven Pines, Frayser's Farm and Malvern Hill. Subsequently he was in camp at Louisa Court House until the opening of the Manassas campaign. He fought at the second battle of that name, and was then compelled by sickness to go to the hospital where he was quarantined about six weeks on account of the breaking out of small-pox. In January, 1863, he rejoined his command at the old Brick church near Petersburg, in winter quarters. In the following spring, while doing picket duty, he was captured by the enemy, and held as a prisoner at Washington and Fort Delaware. After a few weeks he was exchanged and he was able to rejoin his command near Winchester on the retreat from Pennsylvania. He participated in the subsequent operations of the army on the Rappahannock and Rapidan, fighting at Bristoe Station and Mine Run, and passed the winter in camp at Henderson's Crossing. In the campaign of 1864 he fought through the Wilderness and Spottsylvania battles, and at Cold Harbor, and was subsequently on duty in the trenches at Petersburg, where he took part in the battle of the Crater, until the engagement at Hatcher's Run, when he was again captured by the Federals. Sent to the prison camp at Point Lookout he was held there until May, 1865, after the war was over. He rejoined his family, after an absence of over three years, and resumed his former occupation as a builder and contractor. In this business he has been very successful, and though mainly confining his work to residences, has erected some handsome business and public buildings. He has served as health inspector of the city two years, is a member of Pickett-Buchanan camp, and of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias. He was married October 9, 1851, to Mary F., daughter of John Whitehurst, of Princess Anne county.

Marion G. Willis, of Fredericksburg, though but nineteen years old at the close of the war, served two years with distinction as a member of the Sixth Virginia cavalry. He is the son of Rev. John C. Willis, a Baptist clergyman, and native of Orange county, who was the second of twenty-one children of Larkin Willis, son of Capt. Isaac Willis. Ten of the brothers of John C. Willis served in the army of Northern Virginia, of whom one was killed and another died in prison at Point Lookout. Their mother was Mary Catesby Woodford, of Caroline county, the granddaughter of Gen. William Woodford, of the Revolutionary army. She died in August, 1894, on the day following the demise of her husband. Marion G. Willis was born in Orange county, April 7, 1846, and was reared upon the farm of his father until April 30, 1863, when he enlisted in Company I, Sixth Virginia cavalry, originally known as the Orange Rangers. He served in the brigade commanded by W. E. Jones, Lomax and Payne, and Fitzhugh Lee's division through the campaigns in eastern Virginia and the Shenandoah valley, until the latter part of January, 1865, when he was sent to the hospital at Charlottesville. While at home on leave of absence to secure a horse, the war came to an end. He is a