Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/987

Rh, Flag-officer J. R. Mitchell commanding. Here Assistant Surgeon Halstead served upon the gunboat Richmond until the evacuation, when he was ordered to the naval brigade, and was with Tucker and his men in the division of General Custis Lee at Sailor's creek, where, after a heroic resistance, the entire command was compelled to surrender, with the exception of Assistant Surgeon Halstead and Lieutenants King and Cenas. Escaping this calamitous field, he joined the remainder of the army, and surrendered with it at Appomattox three days later. His faithful and devoted service in the Confederate cause was now ended and he returned to civil life. On December 14, 1865, he was married to Margaret Wilson of eastern North Carolina, and he made his home there, meanwhile practicing his profession with much success, until 1874, when he returned to the old Halstead homestead in Norfolk county, with his family. Here he has, since that time, given his attention entirely to the management of his agricultural interests and extensive estates. In 1883 he removed to his present residence, in the neighborhood of the ancestral home. He is one of the leading landholders and prosperous men of the county, and is highly regarded by all. He is a member of the Methodist church, and, among his comrades of the Confederate survivors, is popular and influential, holding at present the position of commander of Neimeyer-Shaw camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Berkley.

James P. Hambleton, M. D., who was engaged in the practice of medicine at the National capital during the latter part of his life, was born in 1828 in Pittsylvania county, Va., where his ancestors had resided during the past two centuries. His grandfather, David Hambleton, held the rank of captain during the war of 1812, and his great-grandfather, David Hambleton, served in the same rank in the war of the Revolution. He received a thorough education in his youth, completing his study of the liberal arts at the university of Virginia, and then took up the study of medicine in preparation for his life work. His professional study was begun at the Richmond medical college and continued at the university of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1850. He then removed to Atlanta, Ga., in 1851, and entered upon the practice, which he continued with much success until the outbreak of the war. On the organization of the Thirty-fifth Georgia regiment he entered the command as surgeon, and remained with the regiment from 1861 until the surrender at Appomattox, sharing its fatigues and privations, its perils in battle and its sufferings in camp, and throughout all rendering such aid as only a true and faithful surgeon can to the men of his command. When the war was over Dr. Hambleton returned to Atlanta and resumed his medical practice, but in 1869 removed to Washington, D. C., where he continued to reside until his death in March, 1897. Long before this sad event he had attained a high station among the medical men of the District, and a warm place in the hearts of his clientele. Dr. Hambleton was married in 1851, in Dade county, Ga., to Martha L., daughter of the late Col. Benjamin Easely, who organized the Twenty-first Georgia regiment. She died in April, 1893, leaving three sons: Benjamin E., engaged in government service in Florida; Oliver E., and Poindexter, of Texas.

Jesse A. Hamilton, of Norfolk, a gallant veteran of Mahone's