Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1359

Rh man of splendid physique and dauntless courage, and was conspicuous among the gallant troopers of the cavalry corps. In a fight at Summit Point, in August, 1864, he was cut off from his comrades and called upon to surrender. But though surrounded, he did not stop to consider that proposition, and emptied his revolvers at the enemy, and drawing his saber, cut his way with reckless daring through the Federal line. As he galloped toward his command, who were witnesses of his bravery and were loudly cheering him, a volley was fired by the enemy, from which he received a wound in the foot and his horse four wounds. But he gained a place of safety, wheeling as he went, to derisively call upon the Yankees to follow him. In 1873 Mr. Willis left his farm home in Orange county and embarked in business at Fredericksburg as a merchant, beginning a successful career of over a quarter century. Since 1879 he has been a member of the city council, and has served as chairman of the finance committee. He is also president of the city telephone company. On May 17, 1866, he was married to Lucy Taylor Gordon, of Culpeper county, and they have two children: Nannie G. and Marion G., Jr.

Alexander Wilson, a prominent business man of Petersburg, who prizes the memory of honorable service in the army of Northern Virginia, is a native of Scotland. He was educated at Edinburgh, his native city, and in 1852, at the age of twenty-two years, landed at New York city, and thence in 1854 removed to Petersburg. Here he embarked in the grocery business in which he has since been engaged, except during his military service. Upon the secession of Virginia he determined to give his aid in the defense of the State, and on April 19th he enlisted in Company C of the Twelfth Virginia infantry regiment, subsequently distinguished in Mahone's brigade. He was stationed with his company at Norfolk until the evacuation of that region by the Confederates, when the demands of his business compelled him to furnish a substitute for a time. In 1863 he re-enlisted in Company A of the Ninth Virginia infantry, Armistead's brigade, Pickett's division, with which he served in the defense of Richmond and Petersburg, combating the raids under Dahlgren and Sheridan, and the advance of Butler's army. He participated in the defeat of Butler's forces at Drewry's Bluff, in May, 1864, and again at Chester Station, in the following month. He subsequently served on the Bermuda Hundred line with Pickett's division until he was captured near Bowling Green, and thence taken to Point Lookout and Elmira, N. Y., where he was held as a prisoner of war until after the close of hostilities. He then returned to Petersburg and set to work to rebuild his business, and in spite of the ravages of the war and many discouraging circumstances, has in the years which elapsed, succeeded remarkably in his enterprises. His business establishment is one of the institutions of the city and he is a popular and influential citizen.

Captain Charles W. Wilson, of Norfolk, who did gallant service in the army of Northern Virginia, was born at Norfolk, February 8, 1838. He is of a family descended from one of two brothers who came to Virginia from Scotland in colonial times and occupied a large grant of land in Norfolk county. His father, Nathaniel Wilson, a prominent planter, born in 1792, died in 1856, was married in 1822 to Mary Land, who was born in Princess