Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/930

870 through all parts of the Confederate States. He was paroled at Rocky Mount in May, 1865, and he then engaged in farming in Franklin county two years. During the following nine years he was agent of the Louisville & Nashville railroad at Mitchellsburg, Ky. After spending two years at Danville, Ky., he returned to Virginia and engaged in business at Roanoke. He has since then been active in various lines of trade at that city. While a citizen of Kentucky he was assistant postmaster at Mitchellsburg two years, and served as road supervisor and school trustee in Boyle county. For six years he was overseer of. the poor at Roanoke. September 13, 1864, he was married to Mary Louise Harriett, daughter of the late Fleming Boone, of Franklin county, Va., and they have eight children. Four brothers of Mr. Fishburn served in the Confederate armies, Jacob W., Ferdinand B., who died as a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, Ohio; Peter H., and Reuben H., the only survivor.

William A. Fiske, a veteran of Pickett's division, army of Northern Virginia, now proprietor of an extensive printing establishment at Portsmouth, Va., was born in 1840 at that city. His father, David D. Fiske, who founded the business now conducted by his son, was a prominent citizen of Portsmouth, editor and proprietor of the "Daily Transcript," and mayor during the yellow fever epidemic of 1855-56. His grandfather, William Fiske, was a native of New Hampshire, and a descendant of Baron Simon Fiske, of England. William A. Fiske was educated at Webster's military institute at Portsmouth, and the institute of Albert C. Roe at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, after which he prepared for examination for entrance to the United States naval engineer service. But at this period the war broke out and he went into the Confederate army as a private of the Marion Rifles, Company B of the Third Virginia infantry regiment. This company was disbanded in May, 1861, by Colonel Pryor, because fourteen men had exercised their right to vote against the ordinance of secession, though at the same time testifying their readiness to follow as soldiers the decision of the State. Private Fiske joined after the reorganization. Before the evacuation of Norfolk, the company joined Magruder at Yorktown and engaged in the Peninsular campaign, the battles of Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Frayser's Farm and Cold Harbor. At Malvern Hill his brother Melzar, only sixteen years of age, was fatally wounded and died two days later at the Seabrook hospital, Richmond. Private Fiske remained with his company until captured, barefooted, in the first Maryland campaign; was confined at Fort Delaware and exchanged in time to rejoin his command in the operations near Suffolk, Va., and in the following summer marched into Pennsylvania. The company had but fifteen men when it reached the field of Gettysburg, and of these nine were killed and disabled by the intense heat and the enemy's artillery fire during the five hours they lay waiting for the order to assault Cemetery Hill. The remaining six, excepting Private Fiske, reached the stone wall from which the Federals were driven, unhurt, but all were captured. Private Fiske fell exhausted just before reaching the "stone wall" and on recovering managed to find his way back into the Confederate line. Subsequently he took part with his regiment in the