Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/877

Rh in 1819-1823, and took to wife Martha N. Peete, who was born in Southampton county, January 30, 1800, and died October 16, 1873. Her parents were of Scotch descent. Thomas H. Cross was reared in Nansemond county on a farm, and entered the university of Virginia in 1858. He remained there until the exciting events of the spring of 1861 interrupted the quiet progress of so many Virginia lives. On April 23, 1861, just four days after the passage of the ordinance of secession by Virginia, he enlisted as a private in Company A of the Sixteenth Virginia infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. In 1862 he fought at French's Farm, Malvern Hill and Second Manassas, receiving two wounds at the latter engagement, which caused him to spend six months in hospital, missing in that period the battles of Fredericksburg and the Maryland campaign. In the spring of 1863 he rejoined his command near U. S. Ford on the Rappahannock river, and remained with the regiment throughout the remainder of the war, participating in the battles of Salem Church, Chancellorsville, Brick Church, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Gurley's Farm, Davis' Farm, the "Crater," Reams' Station and Burgess' Mill. He served in the defense of Petersburg and Richmond immediately before the evacuation, was in the engagement at Cumberland Chapel two days prior to the surrender at Appomattox, and was one of the remnant of thirteen men of his company who were with Lee at the last. His military service, as has appeared from the above, was one of activity and peril. Besides the wounds received at Manassas he was subsequently wounded in the shoulder before Petersburg. Notwithstanding these serious experiences, a natural love of adventure and a desire for change of scene led him, in 1867, to travel to South America, where he enlisted in the army of Brazil. He was a soldier under Dom Pedro during twenty-three months, and then returned to his native land. Settling in Nansemond county in 1870, he devoted himself to the quiet life of a farmer and schoolteacher. In 1879 he was elected to the Virginia house of delegates from Nansemond and served two terms, acting as chairman of the committee on propositions and grievances, the same position held by his father in the legislature sixty years before. For a number of years after this he held the position of deputy collector of internal revenue, with headquarters at Suffolk, and in 1882 and 1883 he served as clerk of the commissioner of railroads of the State. He removed to Norfolk in 1887 in order to secure better educational advantages to his children, and has since resided in that city, where on April 1, 1890, he was appointed deputy United States marshal for the eastern district of Virginia, a position he has since held during all the changes of political power, a sufficient testimonial to his official ability. Mr. Cross was elected in 1884 a delegate to the national Republican convention at Chicago. He is a loyal friend of his comrades in arms and a member of Tom Smith camp of United Confederate veterans. He was married January 13, 1879, to Eleanor, daughter of Thomas S. Wright, of Smithfield, Va., and they have two sons.

Richard G. Crouch, M. D., a well-known and popular citizen of Richmond, was born at that city in 1828. He was educated at the university of Virginia and graduated in medicine at the Richmond medical college. When the war of the Confederacy broke out he