Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/882

822 detailed for secret service near Fortress Monroe, where he was engaged in necessary work, obtaining military information, until the evacuation, when he returned to Richmond. Subsequently he resumed his business in the river freight traffic, and in the fall of 1865 was appointed captain of a steam transport on the James. This position he resigned in 1866 to enter the business of ship brokerage at Richmond, in which he has since continued. As a citizen he is influential and highly respected. He has served ten years successively in the city council, was elected to the legislature in 1883 and twice subsequently. He is a member of the R. E. Lee camp, Confederate Veterans, and of the St. Johns Episcopal church. In 1856 he was married to Margaret Virginia, daughter of the late Robert Drummond, and they have two children living, Wade Hampton and John Taylor Wood. Another son, Robert Boyd T., died in July, 1892, leaving a widow and one daughter. Mrs. Curtis died January 11, 1894.

Robert K. Curtis, a veteran of Stuart's cavalry, who has twice been honored by election to the office of sheriff of Elizabeth City county, is a native of Gloucester county, Va., born July 27, 1844. His father. Col. Robert C. Curtis, a member of one of the oldest and most honored families of Gloucester county, was commander of a regiment of Virginia militia, and for many years was sheriff of his county. Robert K. is the only son of the second marriage of Colonel Curtis, to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Keith Wray, a well-known, prosperous and generous citizen of Elizabeth City county, a direct descendant of Capt. George Wray, of the Revolutionary army. While an infant Robert K. was orphaned by the death of his father, after which his mother made her home in her native county. He was educated in Gary's military academy at Hampton until his fifteenth year, when he enlisted in the military service. He was first a member of the Washington artillery, but on reaching Yorktown, soon afterward, he was assigned to the Old Dominion Dragoons, an organization which became Company B of the Third Virginia cavalry. He was subsequently identified with the career of his regiment and of the cavalry commands of Fitzhugh Lee and Stuart until the close of the war. He served through the Peninsular, the Second Manassas, Maryland, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns, and in all the battles of his regiment. In the fierce cavalry fight on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, he received four wounds in the right arm almost simultaneously, and fainting, fell from his horse, and would have been captured had not a comrade rescued him. Notwithstanding his hurt, he remounted his horse and rode with the cavalry to Gordonsville, before he received the attention of a surgeon. Until his recovery he remained with his family in North Carolina, and then, returning to the field, was detailed as scout attached to the headquarters of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. In this capacity he continued until his surrender at Appomattox, having many dangerous experiences and four times suffering capture, but each time managing to escape. He was several times slightly wounded, in addition to his wounds at Gettysburg. He has since the close of hostilities been a prominent citizen of Elizabeth City county, and was occupied in farming until 1891, when he was elected sheriff, the first Democrat since the war to receive that honor. He was re-elected in 1895.