Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/813

Rh transferred to Charleston, S. C., promoted captain of artillery, and given command by General Beauregard of a light battery on James island, where he served until the evacuation of the city. With four guns he joined General Johnston's army, with which he finally surrendered at Greensboro in April, 1865. Returning to Richmond, he went from there in the fall of 1865 to Louisville, Ky., where he engaged in the tobacco business until 1872, when he again became a citizen of Richmond. In 1888 Gen. Peyton Wise, then inspector of tobacco for the Tobacco association of Richmond, having declined re-election, Captain Bridges was elected in his place and has been subsequently annually re-elected to this office to the present time—1898.

Captain W. H. Briggs, of Emporia, Va., during life a prosperous farmer and influential citizen, was born in Sussex county, October 16, 1833, and was a descendant of one of the old and notable Virginia families. His father, Dr. William Briggs, a prominent physician and member of the Virginia legislature, was a son of William Briggs, a soldier of 1812, and for many years high sheriff of the county. Dr. Briggs married Rebecca, daughter of Maj. James Dillard, who served in the Virginia troops during the war of 1812. Captain Briggs had received his education at the university of Virginia, and had embarked in his agricultural career when the war broke out. He went to the front early in 1861 as captain of the Greenesville Guards, a volunteer company of infantry, and was stationed on the peninsula near Yorktown and Williamsport during the first year of the war. Here, also, he participated in the battles against McClellan's army in the spring of 1862, during the Seven Days' battles and the battle of Malvern Hill, and subsequently participated in the second battle of Manassas. He was then transferred to the cavalry and in this branch of the service he was engaged in campaigns about Richmond and Petersburg until detailed on special service, which occupied him until the close of the war. At the end he was paroled at Petersburg and returned to Emporia, and his work as a farmer. In addition to the management of an estate of seven hundred acres he also conducted a mercantile business. For about twelve years he held the position of superintendent of schools for Greenesville and Sussex counties, and during both the first and second administrations of President Cleveland, his prominence as a citizen and influential service in his party were recognized by his appointment as deputy collector of internal revenue. Captain Briggs was married March 5, l855, to Miss Virginia Land, who died September 11, 1868. June 8, 1870, he was married a second time, to Miss Hart Cook, who survives him.

Admiral Brinkley is a survivor of one of the families of Nansemond county, who loyally supported Virginia in the great struggle, his parents being Admiral and Margaret J. Brinkley. The father, a farmer, born about 1809, in Nansemond county, of which his father, Jacob Brinkley, was also a native, died in December, 1849, and was survived but four years by his wife, a daughter of Job Saunders. Three of their sons entered the Confederate service. Robert B. became captain of Company I, Forty-first Virginia infantry, Mahone's brigade, and after a faithful and distinguished service was killed in a skirmish at Hanover Junction in May, 1864. Hugh G. held the rank of lieutenant in the same