Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1368

1280 clothing. About a month before the fall of Richmond he reported for duty with the battery of Capt. John Donnell Smith, in which he had received a commission as lieutenant, and in that capacity he took part in the subsequent engagements of the battery, serving on the lines near the Howlett House and at Sailor's Creek, and being present at Appomattox Court House, where he was surrendered with General Lee's army. After this event he repaired to Princess Anne county, Va., and found employment on a farm for two or three months, afterward teaching school for a year. Deciding to make his career in this profession he went to Norfolk and was for three years an instructor in the academy there. In 1870 he removed to Baltimore, and became principal of the male grammar school, No. 4, and after six years' service was appointed assistant superintendent of the public schools of the city. In 1883 he was promoted to the position of superintendent, and during the long period which has elapsed he has continued to efficiently discharge the duties of that office. He is an active member of the society of the Army and Navy, of Maryland. It should be noted in closing that Professor Wise is the descendant of men distinguished in military service, his maternal grandfather, Col. John Finney, having served in the war of 1812, and his great-grandfather. Gen. John Cropper, having held that rank in the Continental army. Colonel Peyton Wise, a distinguished officer of the army of Northern Virginia, and since the war prominent in the business and public affairs of Richmond, was born in Accomack county, February 9, 1838. His father was Tully R. Wise, his mother Margaret D. P. Wise, a sister of Gov. Henry A. Wise. At an early age he was taken by his family to Washington, D. C., where his father had been appointed to high public service, and he was reared and given his academic education at the national capital. In later youth he went to Philadelphia and entered as a law student the office of one of the most distinguished members of the bar of that city. As he was thus engaged in preparation for a life career the crisis of 1861 arrived, and true and loyal to his State, he promptly returned to the land of his nativity and the home of his kindred, ready to undergo any sacrifice for its defense. Going into Goochland county, which he had never previously visited, his ability as an organizer and strength as a leader were soon manifested by the speedy raising of a company which was mustered into the service July 3, 1861, as Company H of the Forty-sixth Virginia regiment of infantry, in the command of Brig.-Gen. Henry A. Wise. He was introduced to the activities of war in the West Virginia campaign under the general command of Robert E. Lee, his regiment operating in the Kanawha region. Thence he returned to Richmond to participate in the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days' battles on the peninsula. Subsequently he took part in the Roanoke Island campaign, in the defense of Charleston under Beauregard, and in the defense of the Petersburg lines during the siege of 1864-65. At the reorganization of the army in 1862 he was promoted major of the Forty-sixth regiment, and in 1863 was again promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. During a great part of the remainder of the war he was in command of his regiment. During the fighting before Petersburg he was severely wounded, and on the first day after his return to duty in October, 1864, he was captured by the