Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/922

862 lines, it is remembered that, charging with Mahone's men upon the Federals after the explosion, he jumped fearlessly into the pit, and, when a gun was leveled at him, escaped death by seizing two Federal soldiers, one with each hand, whom he used as a shield until the menacing enemy was made away with by his comrades. When the fighting was done Major Etheredge returned to his farm, to which he has ever since given his attention, with notable success. His virtues as a citizen and neighbor, as well as the memory of his devotion as a soldier, make him one of the most popular men of Norfolk county. He is a trustee of his church, the Methodist Episcopal. On November 30, 1893, he and his faithful wife, whose maiden name was Sarah A. Carson, reached the date of their golden wedding, in the observance of which they were joined by their eight living children, and the grandchildren.

Dennis Etheridge, of Norfolk, a veteran of the Fifteenth Virginia cavalry, is a native of North Carolina, born in Currituck county, August 12, 1842. He is the son of Isaiah Etheridge, a native of Princess Anne county, Va., and his wife, Sarah Cox, of Currituck county. He was reared in his native county, and, in his nineteenth year, on July 4, 1861, enlisted as a private in the Jackson Grays, which became Company A in the Sixty-first Virginia regiment. He served with this command until the reorganization, in May, 1862, when he became a member of Company A of the Fifteenth Virginia cavalry, with which he served gallantly in many engagements, the most important of which were City Point, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' battles, including Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Culpeper, the Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, Drewry's Bluff, the Petersburg Crater and Yellow Tavern. During his career he was three times wounded by the explosion of shells, and his clothing was pierced by five minie balls. In 1863, just before his command entered Maryland on the Pennsylvania campaign, he was captured by soldiers of Sheridan's command, but was so fortunate as to escape on the fourth night of his captivity. At the battle of Culpeper he was captured and recaptured seven times, but, finally, was left in the Confederate lines. At Luray, after the return from Gettysburg, he was again captured by Sheridan's cavalry and imprisoned for fourteen months at Elmira and Point Lookout. In the spring of 1863 he was granted a thirty days' parole and went from Point Lookout to Camp Lee at Richmond, where he was given a twenty days' furlough to visit his home. During this time the army evacuated Richmond. On his return to Richmond, he was again seized as a prisoner, but the army surrendered three days later, and he was released and permitted to return to his home, where he was finally paroled in May, 1865. For five years following these events he remained at his family home, and then removed to Virginia. For ten years he gave his attention to the lumber business in the vicinity of Norfolk, and then located at that city in the commission business, which he followed for ten years and still retains an interest in. In 1886 he took part in the organization of the Merchants' and Farmers' peanut company, and has held the position of president of the company since that date. Though successful in business he does not permit such cares to withdraw him from the social duties of a gentleman. In