Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/751

Rh the warm compliments of the general. At Sharpsburg he went into the battle and shared in the hard fighting which resulted in the repulse of Burnside. Since the close of hostilities Captain Adams was for some time engaged in dealing in coal and lumber, doing an extensive business, and since 1891 has been interested in coal mining operations in the Pocahontas district of West Virginia. Since 1875 he has been doing an extensive export tobacco business. He is an influential citizen of Lynchburg, and has served upon the city council.

Judge Stephen Adams, a distinguished attorney of Lynchburg, Va., recently appointed to the bench, was educated at Yale college and was graduated with the class of 1850. Immediately thereafter he made his home at Lynchburg and entered upon the study of law with Robert J. Davis, Esq. In 1854 he was admitted to the bar and then embarked in the practice in Raleigh county, now West Virginia, where he was living at the outbreak of the war. Thoroughly devoted to the cause of the State he organized a company of which he was elected captain, and was commissioned in that rank when the company was mustered in as a part of the Twenty-second Virginia regiment of infantry. Captain Adams was, however, very soon afterward detached from the regiment and placed in command of the military post at Sulphur Springs, Va. He remained there until July or August, 1861, when he rejoined the army at Big Sewell mountain, with the men of his command, and was assigned to the Thirtieth Virginia battalion, an organization of sharpshooters with the rank of senior captain. During the remainder of his service he was for a large part of the time in command of the battalion, which rendered gallant service on many hard-fought fields. He participated in the battle of Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864; was in command after the wounding of Maj. Peter J. Otey, of his battalion at the fight at New Market, May 15, 1864; and took part in all the fights under Early in the Shenandoah valley until wounded and captured at Winchester on September 19th. He was then sent as a prisoner of war to the Baltimore hospital, and detained until just before the surrender of the army, when he was exchanged and paroled. Returning to Virginia he made his home at Lynchburg, and resuming the practice of law, soon attained prominence in that profession. In 1880 he represented his county in the legislature of Virginia, and in 1896 he was appointed to the office of judge of the Campbell county court.

John H. Alexander, of Leesburg, who served the Confederacy in the gallant band of troopers known as "Mosby's men," is a native of Clarke county, born in September, 1846. In April, 1864, having reached the age of eighteen years, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private in Company A of the Forty-third Virginia battalion, under the command of Colonel Mosby, and during the following year of the war participated in the many daring and romantic exploits of that famous body of cavalry. The service was constant and arduous and was effective in the interests of the cause far out of proportion to the numerical strength of the command, owing to the fertile ingenuity of the commander. During the Adamstown raid, made in co-operation with Early's expedition against Washington, Mr. Alexander was wounded in an action with Federal troops. After the surrender of the command, on April 22, 1865,