Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/805

Rh N. R. Bowman, of Lynchburg, well remembered by his comrades as a faithful soldier of the Confederate States, was born in Botetourt county in 1837. He was reared in Prince Edward and Charlotte counties until 1855, when he made his home at Lynchburg. He entered the service in the spring of 1862 as orderly-sergeant of a company of artillery, organized at Lynchburg, and with this command was assigned to the artillery battalion of Col. T. S. Rhett, for service in the defense of Richmond. His health was delicate, and in about four months it gave way to such an extent that he was unable longer to perform his duties with the battery. He was then detailed by Colonel Rhett for duty in the ordnance bureau, but his increasing disability compelled him to go home a few months later. In 1864, having somewhat recovered his health, he volunteered as a private in Company B of the Second Virginia cavalry, of General Munford's division, with which he served until the close of the war. While with the Second cavalry he participated in the battle of Cedar Creek and the skirmishes which accompanied the retreat from the valley of the Shenandoah. Since the close of hostilities Sergeant Bowman has been engaged in business at Lynchburg, where he is highly regarded by his former comrades and the community generally. He has served in the city council, and in various ways honorably discharged those duties of good citizenship becoming a Confederate veteran.

Richard Simon Boykin, a prominent citizen of Suffolk, Va., was born in Southampton county, May 1, 1846, the son of Maj. John Boykin, also a native of that county, where the family has resided for many years. His ancestor, William Boykin, came from England in 1634 and settled on a large estate granted him in the county of Isle of Wight, which then comprised the territory of Southampton county, in which part of the Boykin estate lies. Maj. John Boykin had two or three farms in Virginia and one near Holly Springs, Miss., and led the life of a planter until his death in 1857. His wife, the mother of R. S. Boykin, was Caroline, daughter of Col. Richard Kello, whose father, William Kello, came to Virginia from England. She died in 1868. Mr. Boykin, in his youth, was educated in the schools of Berlin, Southampton county, and in Nansemond and Caroline counties and spent two years at Harrison's school, a famous institution in Amelia county. On leaving this school it was with the intention of entering the university of Virginia, but the war was making such demands then upon the strength of the State, that as a loyal citizen, though but a boy of seventeen years, he enlisted in the Confederate service early in 1864, as a private in Company A of the Eighteenth Virginia battalion of artillery. His gallantry as a soldier earned him promotion to the rank of lieutenant, but he never received his commission on account of the speedy close of the war. He participated in the battle of Sailor's Creek and was among the captured, and on July 6, 1865, was paroled and released. Five members of his family being engaged in the medical profession, he took up the study of medicine with his uncle. Dr. Samuel B. Kello, but soon abandoned the study and began reading law under Judge George T. Bartlett, of Georgia, his cousin. On completing his studies he was admitted to the bar, and then, on account of his mother's illness, he returned to Virginia, and after her death, which soon followed, he took charge of the estate. The assumption of these