Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/875

Rh prisoners than the number of his command. From March to July, 1864, he served at Weldon, and had received orders to enter the secret service between Norfolk and Richmond when he was captured by the enemy and carried to Fortress Monroe. There and at Point Lookout, and Fort Delaware he was held until June, 1865. On his return to North Carolina he busied himself with various vocations for a few years, finally becoming established as a funeral director at Norfolk, with his residence at Berkley, Va. He is thoroughly proficient in all the details of his calling and has been very successful in life. By his marriage in 1870 to Miss Elizabeth M. Wigginton, of Currituck county, he has seven children living: Eugenia, wife of C. C. Barclay; Florence E., E. L. Cox, Jr., R. F., Mamie, W. W. and Sadie.

Major Nelson W. Crisler, of Madison, Va., was born in Madison county, September 12, 1830. His early manhood was devoted to mercantile pursuits and he became quite prominent in local affairs, at the time of the crisis of 1861 holding the office of presiding justice of the county court. In April, 1861, he enlisted as second lieutenant of a volunteer company, which was assigned as Company A to the Seventh Virginia infantry, which, under the command of General Kemper, then colonel in the brigade of General Early, participated in the battles of Blackburn's Ford and Manassas in July, 1861. After one year's service Lieutenant Crisler was promoted captain, and he was subsequently promoted major, the rank which he held when paroled at Appomattox. He was identified with the gallant service of his regiment, under Kemper, Early and Longstreet throughout the four years' war, and still maintains his comradeship with the survivors of the great army by membership in Kemper-Fry-Strother camp, United Confederate veterans. After the close of hostilities he was engaged in farming at Madison until 1882, when he was elected judge of the county courts of Green and Madison counties. After holding this office four years he was elected, in 1887, clerk of the county and circuit courts of Madison county, a position to which he was re-elected in 1893. He is a popular and able public official. On March 4, 1852, Judge Crisler was married to Miss Cordelia F. Weaver, of Madison county, and they have six children living. Two sons are residents of Meridian, Miss., and one has his home at Birmingham, Ala.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Critcher, distinguished in the service of the army of Northern Virginia, was born in Westmoreland county, Va., March 11, 1820. His family for two centuries resided at Waterview, on the Potomac, not far from the Washington and the Lee estates. Here he was reared, and thence sent in his youth to the university of Virginia, where he studied for four years. Subsequently he traveled for three years in Europe, and then, returning to Virginia, entered the legal profession, whilst engaged also in agricultural pursuits. During the period before the war he rose to prominence as an attorney and to influence in political affairs. He was elected to the position of commonwealth attorney, and represented his district in the State senate. He was a Union member of the famous secession convention of 1861. Early in the spring of 1861, earnestly devoted to the cause of the State, he enlisted as a private in Company A of the Ninth Virginia cavalry. In this capacity he served until the reorganization in 1862, when he raised