Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/777

Rh in this capacity until the Confederate capital was evacuated. Before the investment of the city by Grant he had been serving with his company in southwest Virginia, defending the salt works at Saltville, but being ordered back, he served on the lines, until the retreat to Appomattox began. His company was disbanded at Newbern, Pulaski county, and he then returned to Chilhowie, where he now resides. He is married to Flora Bailey, a native of West Virginia, and they have four children: Alonzo C. Bailey, Catherine P., Carrie A. and Rowena. T. T. Beatie, a brother of the foregoing, now residing near Alexandria, Va., served with Mosby's cavalry throughout the war, winning by his gallantry the rank of lieutenant.

Major Henderson Moffett Bell, formerly a member of the well-known law firm of Echols, Bell & Catlett, of Staunton, and conspicuous during the war for important services rendered the army of Northern Virginia, is a native of Augusta county, born in 1826. He is the son of James Bell, born in the same county in 1772, died in 1856, who served for a considerable period as sheriff and high sheriff and was for thirty years presiding justice of the county court. The father of the latter was Joseph Bell, also a native of Augusta county, born in 1742, who during the Revolution occupied the position of supply agent in Augusta county for the army, and survived until 1823. The latter's father, William Bell, the founder of the family in America, left his native land, the north of Ireland, with his four eldest children, about 1722, and after residing in Pennsylvania until 1738, made his home in Augusta county, where he died in 1756 and was interred at Fort Defiance, near Staunton. Major Bell was graduated at Washington college in 1847, then studied law with Judge Lucas P. Thompson at Staunton, and in 1849 was admitted to the bar. He continued in the practice with much success until April, 1861, when he entered the military service of the State, and was at once assigned to the duty of receiving and forwarding troops to the front, and stationed at Staunton. In the following August he was commissioned captain and assigned by Col. M. G. Harman to the quartermaster's department, in charge of that branch of the service at Staunton. In 1862 he was promoted major, the rank in which he served during the remainder of the war, in charge of the quartermaster's department of the Valley. The duties of this important position were discharged by him with remarkable efficiency. He furnished all the supplies from Staunton for the armies of Jackson and Lee with satisfactory promptness, and was able to do so without in any case resorting to impressment. During the period of this service he organized factories for the production of shoes and clothing, and made and set up machines for the manufacture of shoe-pegs, concerns which were able to turn out from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pairs of shoes daily and about the same number of suits of clothing. With the surrender of the army, which put an end to this activity, he was paroled at Staunton, and returned to the duties of his profession. A law partnership was soon formed between General Echols, Col. R. H. Catlett and himself, which continued for a number of years, and gained a prominent position in the legal profession of the State. In 1869 he yielded to the wishes of the people of the county that he should represent Augusta in the State legislature, and held a membership in the important assembly which