Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/235

 PROMINENT PERSONS

the support of his newspaper to the cause of the Confederacy, and continued its publication without profit up to 1864, when he returned to Petersburg, hoping to re-establish the "Register" with better financial success, but his hopes were destroyed by the presence of the Federal army before that city, and he did not long survive the downfall of the Confederacy, dying suddenly at Petersburg, Virginia, November 26, 1865.

Preston, John Thomas Lewis, was born in Lexington, Virginia, April 25, 1811, son of Thomas Lewis and Edmonia (Randolph) Preston; grandson of Col. William (1729-1783) and Susanna (Smith) Preston, of Smithfield, and great-grandson of John Preston, the immigrant. His father was a major in the war of 1812, lawyer, and member of the Virginia legislature. In 1836 Mr. Preston conceived the idea of substituting for the company of soldiers who guarded the arsenal, a company of cadets, who, in addition to the duties of an armed guard, should pursue a course of scientific and military studies. The idea materialized, March, 1839, in the Military Institute of Virginia, of which Preston and Gen. Francis H. Smith (q. v.) constituted the entire faculty from 1839 to 1842. He was married (first) August 2, 1832, to Sara Lyle, daughter of William and Phebe (Alexander) Caruthers, of Lexington, Virginia, and had five sons and three daughters; and (second) August 4, 1857, to Margaret Junkin Preston, the poetess (q. v.), by whom he had two sons.

In April, 1861, at the call of the state, the corps of cadets marched for Richmond under the command of Maj. T. J. Jackson, of whose staff Preston became a member, with the rank of colonel. In 1862 the institute was re-opened as a training school to supply skilled and educated officers for the army, the cadets being called repeatedly into active service during the war. On May 15, 1864, at New Market, the corps lost eight killed and forty-four wounded out of two hundred and fifty, and on June 11, 1864, all the institution buildings, save the quarters of the superintendent, were burned by order of Gen. David Hunter (q. v.). When the institute was re-opened in October, 1865, Col. Preston resumed his professorial duties, subsequently traveled abroad, accompanied by his wife, and after his return continued a member of the university faculty until within a few months of his death. He was the author of a biographical sketch of John Howe Peyton in "Augusta County, Virginia." He died in Lexington, Virginia, July 15, 1890.

Lee, Samuel Phillips, born at Sully, Fairfax county, Virginia, February 13, 1812, son of Francis Lightfoot and Jane (Fitzgerald) Lee, and grandson of Richard Henry and Anne (Gaskins) Pinckard Lee, and of Col. John and Jane (Digges) Fitzgerald; attended the schools of his native place, and on November 22, 1825, was appointed midshipman from Virginia, was promoted passed midshipman, June 4, 1831, and lieutenant, February 9, 1837; was given command of the coast schooner, Vanderbilt, August 4. 1844, was in command of the coast survey schooner, Nautilus, of the coast survey brig, Washington, and was present at the capture of Tabasco, Mexico; was promoted commander, September 14, 1855, and during the years 1858 to 1860 was a member of the board of examiners; on November 1, 1860, he was given command of the sloop-