Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/810

752 Miss Fannie Hume, who died four months later, and on March 23, 1868, he was wedded to Miss Nannie Alsop, by whom he had six daughters living. Colonel Braxton died May 27, 1898.

Major Elliott Muse Braxton was born in Matthews county, Va., October 8, 1823. His father. Carter M. Braxton, was the son of Carter Braxton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a lawyer of eminence. Major Braxton studied law with his father and commenced the practice in Richmond City, subsequently removing to Richmond county. In 1857 he was nominated by the Democratic party for the State senate, and was elected over Col. Robert W. Carter, who had long represented the district and who was supposed to be invincible on account of his ability, popularity and the party majority behind him. Braxton was re-elected in 1853 without opposition. In the spring of 1860 he removed to Fredericksburg, and when the war broke out he raised a company of which he was elected captain. He was afterward commissioned as major and served on the staff of Gen. John R. Cooke, through the struggle for Southern independence. Returning to Fredericksburg at the close of the war, he became the senior member of the law firm of Braxton & Wallace. In 1870, when Virginia was allowed, for the first time after the reconstruction period, representation in Congress, Major Braxton was selected as the nominee of the Democratic party from the Eighth congressional district of Virginia and served in the Forty-second Congress. He was renominated by his party in 1872, but was sacrificed together with such men as General Morgan, of Ohio, and Michael Kerr, of Indiana, as a result of the statesmanship that nominated Greeley as the presidential candidate. In 1854 Major Braxton was married to Miss Anna Maria Marshall, of Fauquier county, granddaughter of Chief Justice Marshall. They had seven children, four daughters and three sons. A devoted husband and father died on October 2, 1891, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He lived a Christian, from his early married life being a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. The following resolutions were passed by the vestry of St. George church: "The death of Hon. Elliott Muse Braxton being announced to the vestry of St. George Episcopal church, at a meeting held on this 5th day of October, this body feels that it is only a just tribute to put on record its testimony to the honorable career and reputation of this distinguished member of the vestry. Elliott M. Braxton was a Christian, consistent in all his acts to the faith which he professed. He was a gentleman whose wise counsel will be missed in the deliberations of this body. He was a citizen filled with public spirit only limited by a just recognition of individual rights. He has held with credit high and exalted public representative office. He lived a life to be emulated and died without a stain upon his honor. The vestry tender heartfelt sympathy to each member of his family."

Elliott M. Braxton, son of the foregoing, was born at Fredericksburg, Va., February 6, 1867, and was educated at the university of Virginia, studying law also at that institution. While teaching school at Fredericksburg he continued his legal studies and began the practice at Washington, D. C., in association with Gen. Eppa Hunton. Since 1891 he has been engaged in the practice at Newport News, for several years past as a partner of A. S. Segar and