Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/911

Rh. This officer took great interest in the boy and gave him rapid promotion upon the Tiger, so that, when he died at Liverpool, Edwards was mate of the vessel, though only twenty years of age, and stepped at once into practical command of the ship as well as succeeding by will to the worldly possessions of the captain. After some years he returned to Norfolk and was very successful as a merchant. When troops were first raised for the Mexican war, he organized a company at Norfolk, which was not accepted, as Virginia's quota (one regiment) was already filled. Nevertheless he maintained the organization one year at his personal expense. In 1847 he was appointed captain of Company B, First regiment of U.S. Voltigeurs, and with his men joined General Scott at Vera Cruz. From there to the City of Mexico he served in every battle, receiving the brevet of major at the field of Churubusco. After his return to Norfolk the gold excitement led him to sail for California by way of the straits of Magellan, but, three days after his arrival at San Francisco, death terminated his adventurous and promising career at the age of forty-two years. While Major Edwards and wife were temporarily in Massachusetts, September 16, 1836, their son Oscar was born. A few weeks later he was brought to Norfolk, which has since been his home. After serving an apprenticeship under the pilot laws of the State, he was commissioned as a pilot at twenty years of age. In this service he remained until April, 1861, when he entered the Confederate service and was assigned to the signal service as officer in charge at Sandy Point, Va. Next month he was transferred to the navy and commissioned by Governor Letcher as lieutenant of the privateer Florida, upon which he cruised out of Hatteras inlet and captured several prizes, but was finally chased ashore by a United States man-of-war. The boat was burned to keep her from the enemy. Edwards was then promoted master in the Confederate navy and stationed at Glass Island navy yard, on the York river, until that place was evacuated when he was ordered to the gunboat Teaser, under Capt. Hunter Davidson. In July, 1863, he resigned from the navy to accept position as one of the four special messengers of General Gorgas, chief of ordnance, as which he rendered important and valuable service until he surrendered under the capitulation of Gen. R. E. Lee. Then, returning to Norfolk, he resumed his profession as pilot, becoming in 1870 president of the Virginia pilot association. His retention in that position until the present time is an evidence of the esteem in which he is held by his fellows in that profession. Captain Edwards was married in 1868 to Miss Sarah A. Baker, daughter of John Baker, formerly State pilot of Virginia, who died at the early age of twenty-eight years. Their home is blessed with four children. Captain Edwards maintains membership in several fraternal orders and is a comrade of Pickett-Buchanan camp.

Walter A. Edwards, of Norfolk, now holding a place of well-earned prominence in the journalism of southeastern Virginia, was born in Norfolk, October 27, 1842. His gallant record in the army of Northern Virginia may be in part due to an inheritance of soldierly qualities from his father, O. E. Edwards, who led a company of voltigeurs from Norfolk, under General Scott, in the Mexican war, was promoted brevet major for meritorious service at the storming of Chapultepec, and subsequently becoming one of the "argonauts