Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/375

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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houis, thence to Lexington for burial. Re- turning to his old regiment, the ninth, he was very shortly afterward ordered to re- port to General Robert E. Lee, and by him was attached to the Thirty-ninth Battalion, which was composed of guides, scouts and couriers, and was a part of General Lee's staff. He attained the rank of major. Major Taliaferro remained here until the surrender at Appomattox, when he was selected to carry the flag of truce to the headquarters of General Grant, and he is now one of the few surviving eye-witnesses of the formal surrender of General Lee. Major Taliaferro was wounded three times during his ser- vice, first at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House (known afterwards as the Bloody Angle) the day that General R. E. Lee wanted to lead the charge to retake the works, but his troops would not allow him to do so ; Colonel Walter H. Taylor, his chief of staff, led the charge and requested Mr. Taliaferro to follow him, which he did, although he was almost certain that it meant death for both of them. Colonel Taylor is living at the present time (1915) in Norfolk, Virginia, president of the Marine Bank in that city. Major Taliaferro was again wounded at the battle of Antietam, and slightly wounded at the battle of Win- chester. He has in his possession his parole that he received at Appomattox.

After the war Major Taliaferro engaged in farming in Prince Edward county, Vir- ginia, continuing for a period of eight years, and in 1888 removed to Roanoke, which has since been his place of residence. He estab- lished himself in the real estate business in association with the late Hon. W. P. Dupuy. In 1890 he was appointed land agent for the Roanoke Land and Improvement Company, which was a part of the Norfolk & Western Railway, was very successful in handling these responsibilities, and wound up its affairs in a methodical and satisfactory man- ner. He then entered into a partnership in the real estate line with E. W. Speed, the firm being known as Taliaferro & Speed, and continued this until 1905. In that year he returned to the employ of the Norfolk & Western Railway, as general right-of-way agent, and is holding that position at the present time. He has been very active in political affairs in behalf of the Democratic l^arty, and for a number of years was a member of the City Executive Committee.

He. was appointed a director of the South- western State Hospital by General Fitzhugh Lee, then governor of the state, and has been reappointed by each successive gov- ernor. He is a member of the board of visi- tors of the Western State Hospital, Staun- ton ; the Eastern State Hospital, Williams- burg; the Central State Hospital, Peters- burg; and the Epileptic Hospital, Lynch- burg, Virginia. He is a charter member and ex-commander of the William Watts Camp. Confederate Veterans, and of Os ceola Lodge, Knights of Pythias. He is a charter member and elder of the Second Presbyterian Church.

Major Taliaferro married (first) October 25, 1865, Nannie T., a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin T. Terry, of Hampden-Sid- ney College, and they had children : Lucy, who married Rev. Turner Ashby Wharton ; Lawrence Hay, was accidentally shot at the age of seventeen years, while a student at Hampden-Sidney College, and died from lock-jaw caused by the wound ; Elizabeth A. Mrs. Taliaferro died in 1903. Mr. Talia- ferro married (second) in 1906, Elizabeth Meade Jones, of Petersburg, Virginia. Major Taliaferro has always been a man of strong purpose and sound judgment, and has carried forward to successful completion whatever he undertook. He has always taken an active interest in movements tend- ing to further the development of the com- munity in which he has resided, and has been very successful in his efforts in this direction.

Irby Turnbull. State and national service has been the privilege of the members of the Turnbull family to which Irby Turnbull. of Bovdton. A'irginia. belongs, his father. Rob- ert' Turnbull, and his grandfather, Edward Randolph Turnbull. having both occupied seats in the Virginia senate, Robert Turn- bull a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1910 to 1913. Rob- ert Turnbull was first elected to the Sixty- first Congress to fill out the unexpired term of Francis Rives Lassiter, and was subse- quently returned through election to the Sixty-second Congress. He and his son, Irbv. maintain an extensive legal practice in Boydton, Virginia, as R. Turnbull & Son, an association that had its beginning in 1909.

Edward Randolph Turnbull, grandfather