Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/807

Rh for the defense of his native State. Early in 1861 he organized a company of cavalry in Grayson county, where he was then engaged in practice, of which he was elected captain. This company, known as the Grayson Cavalry, Col. W. H. Jenifer commanding, served under Gens. John B. Floyd and Henry Heth in southwest Virginia and the Kanawha valley of West Virginia during 1861, and during this period he commanded his company with efficiency and gallantry. At the close of the first year's service he was transferred to the medical department, commissioned surgeon, and assigned to the Sixty-third Virginia infantry regiment. With this command he served in the army of the Kanawha, and in the Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee campaigns of 1863, and was with the regiment in Buckner's corps of the army of Tennessee during the battle of Chickamauga. Subsequently he was on hospital duty at Forsyth, Ga., and at the Floyd House hospital, Macon, until the close of the war. He was captured by the enemy at the fall of Macon, April 20, 1865. While in the military service and since then he has been distinguished for his success in some of the most difficult and dangerous of surgical operations. After the close of hostilities he resumed the practice of his profession at Newbern, Pulaski county, Va., and in 1884 he removed to his present home at Pulaski City, where he is engaged actively in his profession.

Major Thomas A. Brander, of Richmond, distinguished as an artillery officer of the Confederate States army, was born in that city December 12, 1839. In his youth he engaged in mercantile employment and was so occupied when the troops of Virginia were called out to repel the threatened invasion. As a private he had served with Company F, First Virginia regiment, at Harper's Ferry and Charlestown, during the John Brown affair, and in the same station he entered the service in 1861. He was at once promoted second lieutenant of Company A, Twentieth regiment, Virginia volunteers. With this command he participated in the campaign in West Virginia, fighting at Rich Mountain July 11, 1861. On his return from this campaign he was promoted to a captaincy in the provisional army and in the fall and winter of that year he assisted in the organization and equipment of Letcher's battery, an artillery command of six guns, of which he was appointed junior first lieutenant. In this rank he served until after the battle of Chancellorsville, when his bravery and efficiency were recognized by promotion on the field to captain of the battery. He retained this command until January, 1865, when he was promoted major of artillery and assigned to the battalion of Col. William T. Poague, with whom he served until Appomattox. Among the battles in which he participated, the most notable are Rich Mountain, Mechanicsville, Malvern Hill, the three days' fight at Chancellorsville, the engagement at Fredericksburg in 1862, when he was badly wounded, Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg, Spottsylvania Court House, all the fighting on the Petersburg line during the siege, and the two battles at Reams' Station. When he had done his whole duty as an intrepid and devoted soldier, he returned to Richmond at the close of the struggle and embarked in business, giving his attention mainly to insurance agencies. He is universally popular as a gentleman and a business man, and is influential in many directions for the good of the community. He