Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/999

Rh Seven Days' battles before Richmond, the operations about Charleston, S. C., and the engagements around Richmond and Petersburg in 1864. While fighting in the defense of Petersburg, June 17, 1864, he received a wound which caused the loss of his right arm, and disabled him for further duty with the army. He was paroled at Palmyra, Va., in June, 1865, and then returned to home life in Albemarle county. Becoming prominent in public affairs and in political councils, he was elected to the legislature from Albemarle county, and served with efficiency from 1869 to 1873. Subsequently, in 1877, he was elected to the position of sergeant of arms of the house of delegates, and by re-election held this position during the following ten years. He was then, in March, 1877, elected railroad commissioner of Virginia, and continued in that office until the present time by five successive re-elections. He is one of the prominent men of the State and possesses wide influence. His membership in the Confederate veterans' association is in Henry Gantt camp, of Albemarle county, of which he is commander. Major Hill's maternal grandfather, Joseph Christian, a native of Charles City county, served as a captain in the war of the Revolution, and with such gallantry as to win the soubriquet of "Fighting Joe Christian." His brother, Allen Hill, served in the Confederate cause, as orderly sergeant of Major Hill's company, and suffered the loss of his left arm at Petersburg in 1865. He now resides at Roanoke, Va.

Captain Thomas M. Hodges, a prominent civil engineer of Portsmouth, Va.. was a gallant soldier of the army of Northern Virginia, and identified in his military career with the altogether worthy record of Company A of the Third regiment of Virginia infantry. Of this company, which was organized under the title of the Dismal Swamp Rangers, at Deep Creek, Norfolk county, in 1856, he held the rank of first sergeant at the outbreak of the war, and, in addition to this military experience, he had had the advantage of training at the Webster military academy at Portsmouth. On April 19, 1861, Capt. James C. Choate then in command, apprehending trouble at the Gosport navy yard, mustered his command under arms and marched to Portsmouth, where the governor's orders the next day found the men ready for action. In the fall of 1861 Captain Choate resigned and Lieut. John R. White became captain. The latter soon afterward taking the position of commissary of the regiment, Hodges, who had been promoted through the lieutenancies, was elected captain, the rank he held during the remainder of the war. At the battle of Five Forks he had command of the regiment and surrendered it at Appomattox. On June 7, 1861, his company left Hospital battery, with the Third regiment, for Burwell's bay, where it remained until ordered to the reinforcement of Magruder on the lines at Yorktown, in March, 1862. It took part in the repulse of McClellan at Dam No. 2, and fought at Williamsburg until withdrawn on the retreat toward Richmond. The company took part in the two days' fighting at Seven Pines and all the Seven Days' battles except Malvern Hill, when it was held in reserve, suffering severe loss at Frayser's Farm, losing, out of sixty-eight men, five killed, including two lieutenants, and seventeen wounded. It fought at Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg, terminating the campaign of 1862 by honorable action at Fredericksburg. At the battle of Gettysburg