Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/780

724 he was married to Fannie M., daughter of Maj. J. W. Bruce, and they have one son, Scott Bruce Berkeley.

Colonel Joseph Virginius Bidgood, a gallant soldier who is now prominent in the Virginia organization of the United Confederate Veterans, was born at Portsmouth, Va., in 1841. In his youth he entered William and Mary college and was yet a student there when the crisis of 1861 arrived. In April, among the earliest volunteers for the defense of the Old Dominion, he enlisted as a private in Company C of the Thirty-second regiment of infantry. He continued with this command throughout the war, first in Semmes' brigade of McLaws' division, Magruder's corps, and subsequently, by change made just before the battle of Fredericksburg, in M. D. Corse's brigade of Pickett's division. At the reorganization he was promoted sergeant-major of his regiment, and just after the battle of Five Forks he was further promoted adjutant of the regiment. His service included honorable duty in the memorable battles of the Seven Days before Richmond, Sharpsburg, Md., Monocacy Bridge, Crampton's Gap, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg, the fighting on the line between Petersburg and Richmond, Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks and Sailor's Creek. At the latter disastrous encounter he was wounded and captured. Being then carried to the military prison at Point Lookout, and refusing to take the oath, he was held until paroled in June, 1865. He then returned to Virginia and made his home at Richmond, where he has subsequently resided. He presently engaged in the organization of the First Virginia regiment of State troops, in which he rendered valuable service first as captain, and through the successive grades of major and lieutenant-colonel. Afterward he was elected and commissioned colonel of the First Virginia cavalry. His service one year in this capacity completed twenty years of honorable duty in the Virginia militia, and he was retired by Governor McKinney with the rank of colonel of cavalry. From the first he took an active part in the organization of the Confederate Veterans association, being a charter member and a lieutenant commander of R. E. Lee camp, at Richmond, and also a member of George E. Pickett camp of the same city. In February, 1892, his valuable services to the order were recognized by his appointment as adjutant-general of the Virginia division, a position he has since most efficiently occupied.

Joseph L. Bilisoly, late sergeant-major of the Ninth Virginia infantry, Armistead's brigade, army of Northern Virginia, now a leading business man of Portsmouth, Va., was born at that city October 27, 1840. His family was founded in Virginia by Antonio S. Bilisoli, a native of Corsica, and a relative of Napoleon Bonaparte, who came to America with the fleet of Count de Grasse, which rendered such vital assistance in securing American independence, and afterward removed to San Domingo, where he married Adelaide Accinelli, daughter of Rosalie Michaux, one of the refugees from Acadie. With his wife's father, who was a shipbuilder, Antonio Bilisoli came to Portsmouth in 1798 and engaged in shipbuilding and the West India trade for about twenty years, subsequently conducting a mercantile establishment, and dying in 1845. He had five children: Joseph A., Lucrece, who married Admiral August Louvel (commander of the department at Brest), of the French navy; Virginia, who married Don Jose Lorenzo