Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/941

Rh Captain Floyd was offered the rank of major in General Polignac's command. This promotion was gladly accepted, as it restored its recipient to duty in the field. But before an officer was appointed to relieve him of his post duties, disquieting rumors came from Virginia and General Polignac, under the advice of friends high in military authority, resigned his command and sought the inhospitable environments of military headquarters at New Orleans, where General Butler held sway. Within a few weeks news came of the heart-crushing events at Appomattox, and a few days thereafter there was no general organization among the military forces west of the Mississippi river. Captain Floyd remained at his post, facilitating the distribution, among the needy, of the army supplies accumulated at the different depots in his territory, until Federal troops took actual possession. A few months later he married a daughter of Madison Morrow, a former representative of his people and a leading merchant of north Louisiana. After several business ventures in Texas and Louisiana he returned to his old home in Virginia, and now resides near Lynchburg, where he is a member of Garland-Rodes camp of Confederate Veterans, and takes great interest in public school affairs, particularly with reference to the histories and other text books that should be taught.

Major Jacob H. Franklin, now a prominent business man of Lynchburg, Va., was entrusted, during the war of the Confederacy, with important responsibilities in connection with the army of Northern Virginia. He is a native of Pittsylvania county, born in 1836, but since 1854, when he removed to Lynchburg, has had his home at that city. In the quiet days before the war he embarked on his business career as a clerk in a mercantile establishment, but after the passage of the ordinance of secession by the Virginia convention, resigned his position and was able, in June, 1861, to enter the military service as a private in Company G of the Eleventh Virginia infantry. In this capacity he was engaged in battle at Blackburn's ford, just before the battle of Manassas, and at the opening of the Peninsular campaign fought at Yorktown and Williamsburg. In July, 1862, without his knowledge or application, he was detailed on account of his business training and capabilities to act as commissary of subsistence under Major Chichester. Under the latter and his successor, Major Moses, he continued in this service, and in 1863 was commissioned as captain in the quartermaster's department with the duty of accompanying the army in its operations and collecting stores of subsistence. In the latter part of 1864 he was promoted commissary of the artillery of the First army corps, with the rank of major, as which he surrendered at Appomattox. Then, returning to Lynchburg, he found employment as a salesman until 1866, when he formed a partnership with a brother in the grocery trade, beginning a business career, since the war, which has been marked with unusual success. His house, which, during the past few years, he has managed alone, has, since 1882, been devoted exclusively to the wholesale trade. He is also interested in many enterprises in the city and county, has been a director in the People's national bank for twenty-six years, and for six years director of the Savings and Trust company, of Lynchburg. Public-spirited and active in many other