Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/649

Rh of Lee's lines during September, October and November. He fought gallantly on the Weldon railroad August 18th, 19th and 20th; at Reams' Station captured 2,000 men, 9 pieces of artillery and many flags; at Burgess' Mill in November, 1864, and in all the struggles on the right, and lastly commanded at Burgess' Mill when the Confederate lines were broken. He conducted his division on the retreat and surrendered with the army on April 9th. During the following years he gave his attention to mining for a time, and then engaged in insurance at Richmond, Va.

Brigadier-General Eppa Hunton was born September 23, 1823, in Fauquier county, Va. The Huntons originally settled in New England, but the ancestor of General Hunton removed at an early period to Lancaster county, Va., where his great-grandfather, William Hunton, married Judith Kirk, and afterward made his home in Fauquier county. From him the descent is through his fourth son, James, and through the latter's second son Eppa. The senior Eppa Hunton was in the service of his country during the war of 1812, at Bladensburg and Craney island, and as a brigade inspector of the Virginia militia. His wife, the mother of General Hunton, was Elizabeth Marye, daughter of William Brent, who removed his family from Dumfries to Fauquier county during the revolutionary war, in which he served with distinction as a captain of infantry. The ancestors of this patriot came over with Lord Baltimore; one of his grandsons, Col. George W. Brent, was a gallant Confederate soldier. After the early death of his father, General Hunton was reared by his devoted mother, and aided by his uncle, the distinguished Charles Hunton, for four years president of the State senate, he studied under the Rev. John Ogilvie, and subsequently he taught school for three years, at the same time pursuing the study of law under the guidance of the late Judge John Webb Taylor. Admitted to the bar in 1843, he began practice at Brentsville, the county seat of Prince William county. In this period his military inclinations, doubtless inherited from his father, were manifested by his acceptance of the colonelcy of the Prince William regiment, and four years later of the rank of general, commanding the brigade. In 1848 he married Lucy