Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/935

Rh campaign in North Carolina, and then, returning to Richmond, aided in the repulse of Butler's advance upon Petersburg, and took part in the battle of Cold Harbor against Grant. After fighting Butler again at Chester Station he remained on the Bermuda Hundred lines until his regiment was sent against Sheridan at Five Forks, April 1, 1865, and was almost annihilated. Private Fiske was among the wounded, and falling into the hands of the enemy was held at Point Lookout until released by order of Secretary Stanton. Since his father's death in 1870, Mr. Fiske has successfully continued the printing business established in 1840, and is a respected citizen. He is a prominent Mason, past master of Lodge No. 56, past high priest of Royal Arch chapter No. 11, past eminent commander of Knights Templar and past district deputy of the Virginia grand lodge. He represented Portsmouth in the house of delegates in 1876-77, and in 1886 was appointed postmaster by President Cleveland. During the first six months of his postmastership the office was advanced to the second grade.

William H. Fitzgerald, a native of Maryland, who has of recent years held the position of commissioner of the associated railroads at Richmond, Va., was born in 1840 and reared and educated in the State of Maryland. At the approach of the crisis between the States his sympathies were strongly with the South, and, immediately upon the secession of Virginia, he entered the Confederate service, April 19, 1861, becoming a private in Company H of the Twelfth Virginia regiment of infantry. With this command he served in the two days' battle of Seven Pines and in the succeeding Seven Days' fighting before Richmond, then securing a transfer to the navy with the rank of master's mate. Being assigned to the fleet at Charleston, he served there in defense of the city, mainly being engaged in picket boat service, until a short time before Charleston was evacuated in February, 1865. He rendered efficient service among those gallant men who made this important point impregnable against the repeated and tremendous assaults of the Federal armies and navies. On leaving Charleston he was ordered to Battery Brooke on James river, where he was on duty in defense of Richmond during the siege and until, at the time of the evacuation, he became a member of the gallant naval brigade which distinguished itself upon the retreat and fought with great heroism at Sailor's Creek. He was paroled at Danville at the end of the struggle, then returned to Maryland and resided at Baltimore until 1893. Removing then to Richmond he became prominently associated with the railroad business of the city. He is a member of the Maryland line and of the Army and Navy society of Baltimore.

Robert I. Fleming, now a citizen of Washington, D. C., and distinguished in his profession as an architect, had the good fortune in the early years of his manhood to be permitted to participate in the heroic actions of one of the most famous of the gallant artillery commands of the army of Northern Virginia, to be spared from fatality, and in later years to cherish and honor the memory of fallen comrades and aid those who survived. Mr. Fleming was born in Goochland county, Va., January 15, 1842, the son of John Malcolm Fleming, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, and a descendant of Sir Malcolm Fleming, one of a family