Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/791

Rh an extensive business. He maintains memberships in R. E. Lee camp No. 1, at Richmond, and R. E. Lee camp, No. 3, at Hampton, United Confederate Veterans; is past commander of the latter camp, and is a director of the State soldiers' home, of Richmond. Captain Booker was married December 13, 1866, to Emily Wood, daughter of Maj. George Wray, descendant of a leading English family, who served upon the staff of General Magruder and died of yellow fever at Galveston during the war. They have four children living: George W., Emily W., Richard M., and Philip W. Booker.

George Booker, a gallant Confederate soldier, now well known as the proprietor of the Sherwood hotel at Old Point Comfort, was born at Sherwood farm, near Hampton, August 31, 1844, the second son of Maj. George Booker. He received his education at Williamsburg and at the Hampton military academy, until that institution was closed early in the war. His first military experience was gained at about the age of seventeen years, upon the arrival of Gen. John B. Hood in the peninsula. That officer selected young Booker and several other boys, familiar with the country, for the duty of securing information regarding the Federal forces at Old Point and the naval and ordnance strength of the enemy. While in the performance of this duty his party of four was surprised by eight or ten Yankees and ordered to surrender. But knowing their fate if they did so, they made a gallant retreat under heavy fire, and were able to kill three of their pursuers by a return fire and escape without injury themselves. During this period, also, he went through the Federal lines twice to visit his old home, procuring provisions and considerable valuable information for the Confederate army. He took part in the battle of Big Bethel, and, in 1862, assisted in transporting quartermaster and commissary stores on schooners up the river to Richmond. He there met his brother, assistant provost-marshal, who secured for him a position in the same line of duty, in which he continued until early in 1863, when he enlisted as a private in the First company of Richmond Howitzers. In the operations of this command he took part, up to and including the battle of Gettysburg. During the terrible artillery duel of the second day, which continued until after dark, he was wounded four times, simultaneously, by the explosion of a shell. Captain McCarthy, afterward killed at Cold Harbor, assisted him to the rear, but as he went his right arm, which was about the captain's neck, was pierced by a bullet. He was laid under a tree and the captain secured a litter and went in search of help to carry him to a barn near by; but before this could be done the tree was struck by a shell, fragments of which demolished the litter and wounded him on the head and in the back. His friend got him into the hands of the surgeons before he had suffered any further as a target for the enemy, but he was so badly hurt that he was reported as dead and was necessarily left in the temporary hospital on the field of battle, where he remained two weeks. He was then placed in a hospital at Baltimore, and a month later was so fortunate as to be included in a special exchange of five hundred totally disabled prisoners. He was in his mother's care at Petersburg for a year before he was fit for the lightest duty; but toward the last of the war he assisted his father, then connected with the quartermaster's department. For twenty years after the close of hostilities, Mr. Booker was engaged alternately in agricultural and mercantile pursuits.