Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1361

Rh mentioned the battles of Falling Waters, Winchester, Charlestown, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, and Chancellorsville. At Second Manassas he received a gunshot wound in the hand. After the close of hostilities he returned to the duties of civil life, and presently prepared himself for a professional career as a dental surgeon, to which he has devoted himself up to the present time. He enjoys an enviable professional reputation and the general esteem as a worthy and valuable citizen.

Captain Peter Eidson Wilson, of Staunton, Va., a veteran of the Stonewall brigade notable for devoted and faithful service, is a native of Augusta county, born September 9, 1839. He was reared and educated in his native county and in early manhood enlisted in the service of his State. His military career began in April, 1861, as a private in the West View Volunteers, of Staunton, which became Company F of the Fifth Virginia infantry regiment. In the spring of 1862 his merit as a soldier was recognized by election to the first lieutenancy, and after the battle of Second Manassas, the captain becoming incapacitated by wounds, Lieutenant Wilson took command of the company and continued in that duty, though he did not receive his commission as captain until the fall of 1863. Soon after he first took command of his company he was given charge of the skirmish line of the Stonewall brigade, a capacity in which he served during the larger part of the remainder of the war. At the time of the surrender of the army at Appomattox, he was in command of his regiment. The principal battles in which he participated were Manassas, July 21, 1861; Kernstown, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg, in 1862; Chancellorsville and Mine Run in 1863; the Wilderness in 1864, and the battle of Fort Steadman and the fighting in the lines at Petersburg and on the retreat to Appomattox in 1865. During the second day's fight at the Wilderness while he was one hundred yards in front of the breastworks, both his legs were broken by a minie ball, and this severe injury entirely disabled him until January, 1865. After being paroled at Appomattox he returned to Augusta county and found employment for a season on his father's farm, then attending Roanoke college, and subsequently pursuing a course of studies at the Bryant & Stratton college at Baltimore. He was in business at Richmond for eight years, and continued in mercantile pursuits at Staunton until 1889. In 1890 he entered the real estate business, in which he is still engaged. He is a popular and influential citizen, highly regarded alike by his former comrades and the public generally.

Captain Christopher V. Winfree, of Lynchburg, during the Confederate war one of the commanders of the Lynchburg Rifles, was born at that city in 1826. He was educated at the Virginia military institute, with graduation in 1848, and subsequently followed the profession of civil engineer for eight years at his native State. As first lieutenant of the Lynchburg Rifles he entered the Confederate service in June, 1861. The command became Company E of the Eleventh Virginia infantry regiment, under Col. Samuel Garland, and was assigned to Longstreet's brigade of Beauregard's army of the Potomac. With this regiment he participated in the battles of Blackburn's Ford, Manassas and