Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/984

918 gallant officer of the army of Northern Virginia, was born in Henry county, June 20, 1835, where he resided until the secession of the State, when he entered the active service as captain of a volunteer company organized in Henry county, which was assigned to the Twenty-fourth Virginia infantry regiment, Col. Jubal Early commanding. He had previously held rank in the Virginia militia, and he was commissioned major of the new regiment, and soon afterward promoted lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Early being assigned to brigade command after the regiment had joined Beauregard's army at Manassas, Lieutenant-Colonel Hairston took command of the regiment and served in that capacity in the fight at Blackburn's Ford and the Manassas battle of July 21st. General Beauregard reported that Hairston "handled his command with satisfactory coolness and skill." He remained with his command at Manassas until February, 1862, when they were transferred to Yorktown to meet the advance of McClellan against Richmond. In the bloody fight at Williamsburg his regiment was distinguished. The brigade was under the immediate command of D. H. Hill and Early, and made an attack near Fort Magruder while Longstreet was engaged in another part of the field. The Twenty-fourth hurried through a woods and charged across open ground against a Federal battery, supported by infantry under General Hancock, under a murderous fire. They drove back the enemy to their fortifications, and held their ground with heavy loss, until called off by General Hill. Col. William R. Terry and Lieutenant-Colonel Hairston were severely wounded in this fight, in which they earned the commendation of their brigade and division commanders. Colonel Hairston was wounded in both the head and groin, but he was again ready for service during the Seven Days' battles. Under the brigade command of General Kemper he commanded the regiment in another impetuous charge upon the enemy at Frayser's Farm, and he was again commended in general orders for fidelity and bravery. At the second battle of Manassas he fought with his regiment in Corse's brigade, Kemper's division, and shared the gallant action of his command in the successful charge near the Chinn house. Here he was again painfully wounded and incapacitated for service during the Maryland campaign. Returning to his regiment, then in Kemper's brigade, Pickett's division, just before the battle of Fredericksburg, he joined in the campaign of Longstreet's corps in southeastern Virginia and North Carolina. He was subsequently with his command at Petersburg, and fought under Early in 1864 at the battle of Winchester. Subsequently he resigned from the service and returned to his home, where, since the close of the war he has been engaged in farming. He is active and influential in public affairs, served four years, 1875-1879, in the Virginia senate, and has also filled the position of deputy United States internal revenue collector. He is a member of the board of visitors of the Virginia military institute, and, in 1895, was a member of the board of visitors of the National military academy at West Point. He was married in 1858 to Miss Jones, of Appomattox.

William J. Hall, of Alexandria, was born in Anne Arundel county, Md., April 15, 1840. He came to Virginia in 1852, and entered the drug business at Alexandria. In the autumn of 1860