Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/779

Rh to leave he took many of them to his granary and had them fill their knapsacks with corn. His wife, Martha Fry Redman, was born in Westmoreland county, December 3, 1817. They were married at Point Pleasant, April 4, 1833, and in 1883, at Richmond, they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. September 13th following, the wife and mother passed away. These parents reared eleven children, two of whom, Henry Clay and Charles Edward, served in the Confederate army, Henry Clay Benson was a member of the Ninth Virginia cavalry throughout the war, served as standard-bearer, was twice wounded in battle, and finally was paroled at Appomattox. He died at Gurley, Ala., January 1, 1891. Charles Edward Benson served in the Otey battery, surrendered at Appomattox, and died at Richmond, October 7, 1879. Another son of this family, John Redman Benson, died before the war at the age of nineteen years, just after completing a course of study at the Virginia military institute. The youngest and only surviving son, Thomas Moore Benson, now a prosperous coal merchant of Newport News, Va., was born at Richmond, November 29, 1854. He made his home at Newport News in 1883, where he speedily became successful in business and influential as a citizen. By his marriage, May 20, 1885, to Annie Louise, daughter of Col. George W. Nelms, of Newport News, he has four children: George William, Annie Louise, Fanny Moore and Charles Mayer.

John L. Berkeley, principal of the public schools of Danville, Va., was born in Westmoreland county, January 11, 1843, son of Landon C. and Sarah Ann (Campbell) Berkeley. His father, born in 1819 in Hanover county, died in 1892, was a lawyer of prominence, served two terms in the Virginia legislature from Westmoreland and Richmond counties; was a member of the Patrick Henry Rifles, Fifteenth Virginia regiment, during the first year of the war, serving with Magruder on the peninsula; and during the next three years was assessor of tax-in-kind in Hanover county. Previous to the war John L. was educated at Hanover and Aberdeen academies. When his father retired from active service he entered the army as a private in Captain Nelson's battery, the Hanover artillery. He was with this command until the fall of 1862, and then was transferred to the Amherst artillery, Capt. T. J. Kirkpatrick. He participated in the artillery fighting at Fort Magruder and Yorktown; and was with his battery at Fredericksburg, Winchester, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Second Cold Harbor, and other encounters with the enemy. At the Cold Harbor struggle with Grant's army in 1864, he was severely wounded and rendered unfit for further service, being confined for a long time in hospital. At the return of peace he engaged in educational work, in which he has since made an honorable and praiseworthy career. After teaching in Maryland until 1869 he attended two sessions of the Georgetown medical college, taught one year at Lynchburg, conducted a private school in Louisa county seven years, and in 1878 established a private school at Danville, where he has since resided, with the exception of two years' association with Dr. C. L. C. Minor, in the Shenandoah valley academy at Winchester. He has been principal of one of the public schools of Danville since 1889. He maintains a membership in Cabell-Graves camp. In 1894