Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1372

1282 the position of adjutant. He is prominent in the Masonic order, of the rank of past master, and is a communicant of the Presbyterian church.

Colonel Elijah Benton Withers, late of Danville, was born in Caswell county, N. C., December 31, 1836, the son of Hon. Elijah K. Withers, a planter of Caswell county, who served in both branches of the legislature of North Carolina and died in 1871. His mother was Nancy B., daughter of Rev. David Lawson, a clergyman of the Baptist church. Colonel Withers was graduated in the university of North Carolina in 1850, and studied law under Judge William H. Battle and Samuel F. Phillips, afterward solicitor-general of the United States. He began the practice of his profession at Yanceyville, N. C., in the fall of 1860. At the first threat of war between the States he became a member of the Yanceyville Grays, and with it entered the Confederate service in May, 1861. The command became Company A of the Third North Carolina volunteers, later designated as the Thirteenth North Carolina infantry, Col. W. D. Pender. At the reorganization in 1862 he was elected captain, subsequently was promoted major and finally lieutenant-colonel in the latter part of 1863. He participated in the battle of Williamsburg, in command of one of the companies stationed at the old revolutionary breastworks, and witnessed the sanguinary conflict with bayonets in which three companies of the Thirteenth lost sixty-nine killed and wounded; fought at Seven Pines, and then was disabled by illness until the Maryland campaign, in which he took part in the battles of Boonsboro and Sharpsburg. At the latter fight a shell struck in front of him, penetrated the ground beneath him and exploded, stunning him so that his legs were completely paralyzed for a day or more. His next battle was Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville Captain Withers was detailed by General Pender to take command of the Twenty-second North Carolina regiment during the absence of its colonel, a high testimonial of confidence in his soldierly ability. With promotion to major he served in the Pennsylvania campaign and was severely wounded in the first day's battle at Gettysburg, after which he was disabled for four months. He took part in all the battles of 1864 from the Wilderness to Petersburg. On the Petersburg lines, one day, having posted two companies to fortify a position to protect the withdrawal of Cooke's brigade, he and his adjutant, T. L. Rawley, on their return were summoned to surrender, and refusing were exposed to the fire of about seventy-five Federal soldiers, but fortunately escaped unhurt. He was in the war to the end and with Lee at Appomattox. Then resuming the practice of law in North Carolina, he was elected to the legislature in 1870, and to the constitutional convention in 1875. Since the fall of 1876 he was engaged in the practice of law at Danville, Va. For three terms he held the position of commander of Cabell-Graves camp, Confederate Veterans, until his death, which occurred on April 23, 1898, at his home in Danville. He was married in 1863 to Mary Price, who died in 1868, and in 1875 he married Lemma Price. The eldest of his five children, Eugene Withers, a member of the Virginia State senate, was his partner in law practice, and since his father's death continues the affairs of the firm.

Colonel Robert Enoch Withers, of Wytheville, distinguished in