Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1381

Rh In May, 1863, being commissioned a lieutenant in the Confederate States navy, he reported to Admiral Buchanan at Mobile, and was assigned to the steamer Baltic, commanded by James Douglas Johnston, where he served as executive officer four months. Subsequently he served several months on ordnance duty under John R. Eggleston, and then took part in the effort to complete the new gunboat Nashville in time to participate in the defense of Mobile. The work progressed night and day for a fortnight, and the officers and crew, seeing they would be too late, begged to be given fighting orders, but the admiral insisted that the completion of the Nashville would be the greatest aid they could render. The work was finished, but on the evacuation the Nashville was destroyed and Lieutenant Yeatman, with the other officers and crew, escaped up the Tombigbee, subsequently surrendering at Owen's bluff to Admiral Thackeray. This body of prisoners was transported from Mobile to Old Point Comfort on the Rhode Island. Just before reaching their destination they learned from a passing boat that President Davis had been captured and was a prisoner at Old Point. The applause of the Federals on board was promptly suppressed by the officers out of respect for their prisoners. On reaching the Point they found that President Davis had not yet landed, and they were disembarked first. They then, some three hundred strong, selected General Ruggles as their commander, and marched in files to a point which Mr. Davis would pass on the way to prison. As he walked by, with irons upon his wrists and head bowed, the Confederate prisoners bared their heads and gave him a silent salute. Subsequently Lieutenant Yeatman was paroled at Richmond, and in 1866 he found employment at Baltimore with a prominent commission house. A year later he became connected with the Baltimore steam packet company, and continued until 1874, first as collector at Baltimore and then as agent at Portsmouth and Norfolk. In 1874 he became general freight agent of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad company, and was the first agent of the company at Norfolk, serving from 1875 until 1889. He then engaged in insurance and brokerage until 1894, when he was appointed harbor master for the city of Norfolk. Charles E. Yeatman was gifted as a conversationalist, and in his youth was a prominent feature in a social circle, noted for the graceful charm of a day that is passed. Through his checkered career his unblemished honor and his tender heart and genial manners attracted hosts of friends who were devoted in life and death. He was a member of St. Luke's church, Pickett-Buchanan camp, C. V., the Masonic order and several other fraternal organizations. He was married November 7, 1860, to Harriet R. Royster, of New Kent county, and died in Norfolk, Va., February 15, 1898. He leaves two children, Philip Edward, a graduate of the Virginia military institute, who entered the volunteer army of the United States in the war of 1898 with the rank of captain in the Fourth regiment of Virginia volunteer infantry, and Susan E., now Mrs. John F. Egerton.

William H. Yeatman, of Alexandria, a native Virginian, was born in Westmoreland county in 1845. At the age of sixteen he entered the Confederate service as a private in the first company that went into the army from his county. This command was mustered in as Company C of the Forty-seventh regiment of