Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/838

780 Sumner; Mary Margaret Wilson; Nannie Louise Page and Robert Bruce.

W. J. Butt, of Norfolk, who has rendered his city valuable service during the past twelve years as street and sanitary inspector, gave his State as faithful service during the war of the Confederacy as an artillery officer in the army of Northern Virginia. He was born at Norfolk in 1831, the son of Samuel Butt, prominent for many years as a contractor, who died in 1884. His mother was Evelyn, daughter of John Brown, a captain in the merchant marine. He was educated at the military academy at Norfolk and was then engaged as a salesman in a bookstore until the spring of 1861. He then enlisted in the Norfolk Light Artillery, and at the reorganization entered the Huger battery, of which he was a member during the remainder of the war, rising, by steady promotion, from the rank of first sergeant to that of second lieutenant of artillery. He was first stationed at Boush's Bluff, then at Camp Talbot, and finally Ward's Farm, before the evacuation of Norfolk. He accompanied the battery by way of Petersburg and Richmond to the field of the Peninsular campaign of 1862; fought at Seven Pines, and then joined General Jackson's command at Warrenton Springs, where he was twice wounded. After this he was in the hospital at Richmond for three months. On his recovery he joined his command in winter quarters in Caroline county, and in the spring of 1863 took part in the movements which resulted in the battle of Chancellorsville. After this fight he took part in several skirmishes of the Pennsylvania campaign, and during the three days' battle of Gettysburg fought from the opening to the close of the contest. Subsequently he was engaged at Culpeper Court House and in the defense of Petersburg. His last fight was at Hatcher's Run, where he was captured by the enemy. He was confined for a short time at City Point and at Johnson's island, Ohio, until he was paroled at the close of the war. On his return to Norfolk, in 1865, he immediately resumed his former occupation, the book trade, in which he has continued, except during the period in which he has served the city as inspector of streets and sanitary improvements. The magnificent improvements which have been made in these departments in the city are in a considerable degree due to his faithful and devoted service. He was married in 1873 to Johanna, daughter of John Page Eley, of Nansemond county, and they have three children living: Mamie Wilson, wife of Compston Goffigan, and William Duncan and Samuel Page, both in mercantile business.

George W. Butts, M. D., a prominent physician of Nansemond county and a veteran of Stuart's cavalry, was born at Chuckatuck, Va., in 1843. His father was Dr. E. A. Butts, a native of Southampton, who practiced medicine at Chuckatuck until his death in 1845, and his grandfather was Daniel Butts, a Virginian of English ancestry. His mother was Mary M. Corbell, daughter of Col. Samuel Corbell, a Virginia farmer and soldier of the war of 1812, and a descendant of an English family which traces it ancestry back to the Earls of Godwin. Dr. Butts was graduated in chemistry and mathematics at the university of Virginia in 1860, and in the spring following abandoned his further studies at the university to enlist as a private in Company B, of the Thirteenth Virginia cavalry regiment, under Col. J. R. Chambliss. With this regiment