Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/766

710 the profession in which his father and grandfather had been distinguished, and after studying in both the university of Virginia and the university of Pennsylvania, was graduated by the latter. He then, until the outbreak of war, was the professional partner of his father, speedily gaining prominence as a physician. In 1861, with true-hearted and chivalrous impulses, he gave his services as a soldier to his State, and was commissioned colonel of the Thirty-first Virginia regiment. During the winter of 1861-62, after General Jackson had retired from West Virginia to the Shenandoah valley, he was left with a part of his command and two other militia regiments, at Bloomery Gap, Hampshire county, where, about daylight, February 14th, he was attacked by a large force under Gen. Frederick Lander. Colonel Baldwin, with his men, went out to meet the enemy, and gallantly kept him at bay until the wagon-train of the command and most of the soldiers could escape. During the mêlée General Lander, observing Baldwin's intrepid conduct, gave the order: "Cease firing at that gallant officer, surround and capture him," and this was accomplished. His captor sent him to Fort Chase with a letter asking for him kindness and consideration as a gallant officer and true gentleman. At the prison camp he was detailed to treat the sick until he was exchanged. His health was then very delicate, but desiring to give the South his services to the utmost of his ability, he accepted a commission as surgeon, and was assigned to the Fifth infantry, Stonewall brigade. After field duty at Cross Keys and Port Republic, it became apparent he could not sustain the fatigues of that service, and he was put in charge of the hospital at Staunton, where he remained until the close of hostilities. Resuming his practice at Winchester then, he was, after the death of Dr. F. T. Stribling, appointed superintendent of the State hospital for the insane at Staunton. Here he was distinguished for his kindness, conscientious devotion to duty, and professional skill, until he died, in November, 1879, lamented by the press and people of the State. The wife of Colonel Baldwin, Caroline, daughter of Hon. Richard Barton, once a member of the Virginia assembly, died six months before her husband. William B. Baldwin, son of the foregoing, of recent years a citizen of Norfolk, where he is winning a creditable place among the business men of that city, was born at Winchester, April 16, 1865. He was reared at his native town and educated in the Shenandoah valley academy. During the year 1881 he went to Norfolk to enter business life, in which he has met with creditable success. November 19, 1895, he was married to Bessie Saunders Taylor, daughter of Col. Walter H. Taylor, and grand-niece of Gen. R. L. Page.

David W. Ballentine, one of the survivors of the charge of Pickett's division at Gettysburg, now a resident of Portsmouth, was born at that city in 1840, the son of David and Elizabeth (Cuthrell) Ballentine. He entered the service of Virginia at the opening of the war as a sergeant in the Portsmouth Rifle company, organized in 1792, and was first stationed at the naval hospital, and later at Pig Point, where he participated in the artillery fight with the Harriet Lane. In February, 1862, he went with his company to reinforce the Third Georgia regiment in its fight with Reno near South Mills, and then returning to a battery near Norfolk, witnessed the famous naval combat of the Virginia and Monitor.