Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/417

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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Armistead, commanded Fort McHenry, guarding the approach to Baltimore, and succeeded in driving away the British tieet on the occasion when Francis Key wrote the national song, the "Star-Spangled Ban- ner." The flag that floated over Fort Mc- Henry during this battle is now in the pos- session of a member of the Armistead fam- i!y. Gen. Walker K. Armistead, the young- est of these brothers, was graduated in West Point's first class in 1803, and attain- ed distinction in the army. He was the father of Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, the hero of Gettysburg, who led in the charge of Pickett's division, which for brilliancy and daring will rank in history with McDonald's charge at Wagram, the charge of the OM Guard at Waterloo, and of the "light bri- gade" at Balaklava. Years after the war, .1 portion of the Federal command that re- pulsed Pickett erected a beautiful monu- ment to the memory of Lewis A. Armistead, near the spot where he fell mortally wound- ed — a distinction never attained by any other American soldier. Lewis' brother, Frank Stanley Armistead, a graduate of West Point, rose to the rank of brigadier-general in the Confederate service, and another brother. Captain Bowles E. Armistead, a gallant soldier of the "lost cause." was se- verely wounded on several hard-fought battlefields. On his mother's side Henry B. Armistead is connected by blood or mar- riage with many of the foremost citizen- of the Old Dominion, his grandfather being Rev. Thomas Harrison, an Episcopalian clergyman of Richmond, who was a neiir relative of Benjamin Flarrison, signer of the: Declaration of Independence, and father of President W. H. Harrison. He is also re- lated to the Fitzhughs, Carters, Lee;;.

Churchills, Taliferros, Marshalls and other old Virginia families. After attending school in the neighborhood of his country home, he was sent at the age of sixteen years to the Virginia Military Institute, whence the Confederacy derived many of its most distinguished ofticers. Hert- for two years it was his privilege to be under the instruction of Major T. J. Jackson, later known as "Stonewall." After graduation, young Armistead went West, and was in the Rocky mountains when the Civil war began. Although in feeble health he nuulc his way South, traveling over three thou- sand miles, a good part of the distance on mule back, and for several hundred miles on foot. He entered the Confederate army as a private, was repeatedly promoted, and continued in active service until the end of the struggle, surrendering at Shreveport, Louisiana, with Price's division, June 7, 1865. After the war he settled in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and soon after moved to Charleston, Arkansas, where he has since lived, engaged in mercandising and farm.- ing. In the Brooks-Baxter gubernatorial "war" between contending political parties, in the days of reconstruction, he was made brigadier-general of militia, and placed in command of all the troops in the western part of the state. In 1877-79 he represented his district in the state senate, and in 18S4 he was sent as a delegate to the convention at Chicago which first nominated Mr. Cleve- land for the presidency. He held the posi- tion of deputy secretary of state (1889-03), became secretary of state in 1893; was re- elected in 1894.

Putnam, Sarah A. (Brock), born at Madi- son, Virginia, about 1840, second daughter