Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/975

Rh camp, Confederate Veterans. In 1866 he was married to Bettie, daughter of William L. Browning, a kinsman of William J. Bryan of Nebraska, and they have six children.

Albert C. Griswold, of Norfolk, who, during the Confederate war, had the distinction of serving in the action of the Virginia with the Monitor, was born in Wales, December 25, 1837. He worked in his youth with his father, a tailor, and, at the age of fifteen years, immigrated to America, landing at New York, where he finished his trade and remained until 1857, when he entered the United States navy as a ship tailor on the sloop of war Macedonia. After three years' service in the Mediterranean, he spent six months on the Cumberland in the Gulf of Mexico. He was with the latter vessel at the Norfolk navy yard when Virginia seceded, and, desiring to join the Confederacy, he escaped from the ship and scaled the wall of the navy yard, as many as twenty shots being fired at him as he did so. The Confederates arrested him as a Yankee, but on being convinced of his friendship, he was enrolled in the United artillery, with which he served throughout the war. He was stationed at Fort Norfolk and was one of the detail which served on the Virginia when she sunk the Cumberland, the ship he had recently abandoned, and, on the next day, fought on the Virginia in battle with the Monitor. Then, rejoining his command at Fort Norfolk, he remained there until the evacuation, May 10, 1862. He then went with his command to Petersburg and subsequently to Richmond, where he served in guarding the railroad to Manassas, and fought at the battle of Seven Pines. His duty during the remainder of the war was in the vicinity of Richmond. He served with Howlett's battery at Bermuda Hundred at the time of the landing of Butler, and participated in the fight at Dutch Gap with the Federal fleet of five monitors. Here he was taken prisoner by sailors who had landed, and was imprisoned, first at Point Lookout and then at Elmira for seven months. Finally he was permitted to return to Richmond as a nurse with exchanged prisoners, ten days before the evacuation. He attempted to rejoin his command, but was advised not to do so, because he had not been exchanged. Subsequently he was again captured at Drewry's Bluff, and sent to City Point, where he was held until after Appomattox and paroled at Norfolk. Then, returning to business life, he founded a merchant tailoring establishment, which has been very successful. He is a member of Pickett-Buchanan camp, is a vestryman of St. Peter's church and is connected with the orders of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Royal Arcanum, and Home Circle. He was married, March 28, 1865. to Miss Susan M. Thompson, at that time a refugee from Norfolk at Chesterfield, Va.

Virginius Despeaux Groner, of Norfolk, Va., was born in that city September 7, 1836. His father, George Groner, came to the United States from Germany in 1827, settled first at New York and later at Norfolk, where he wedded Eliza Newell, a daughter of an old Virginia family, whose father served as a member of Captain Emerson's company at Craney's island, in the repulse of the British from Norfolk in the war of 1812, and whose grandfather, Capt. Robert Newell, commanded a privateer in the Continental service. He was educated at the Norfolk military academy, graduating with honors in 1853, and was admitted