Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/663

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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neys through his adept hancUing of legal weapons. Mr. Bagby affiliates with the church in whose ministry his honored father labored, the Baptist, and is a member of the finance committee of that organization.

He married, in 1893, Ella Brooke, daugh- ter of R. T. and Belle ( Brooke) Canthorne, and has children : Ella Brooke, born No- vember 7, 1896, and Frank H., born Novem- ber 28, 1901.

Jesse Nicolas Bosang. The first two mar- riage licenses executed in Pulaski county, Virginia, the first bearing date July 29, 1839, the second May 6, 1840, were executed by Rev. John Grayson Cecil, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, maternal grandfather of Jesse N. Bosang, the present efficient clerk of Pulaski county. It is worthy of record that from 1839 to 1841, Rev. Cecil executed thirty-nine marriage licenses in the county.

Jesse Nicolas Bosang is a son of Captain James Nicolas Bosang. commander of Com- pany C, Fourth Regiment Virginia Infantry, Stonewall Brigade, Confederate States army, ex-county clerk of Pulaski, in which county he is now living a retired life. Captain Bosang was born in Pulaski county, May 2, 1837, and until the outbreak of the war was engaged as a boot and shoe maker. In 1859 he became a member of the newly organized Pulaski Guards, which company in 1861 tendered their services to Governor Wise. They were ordered to Richmond, April 29,

1861, James N., Henry and John Bosang, brothers, all being members of the company, the latter but sixteen years of age insisting on accompanying his brothers. Reaching Richmond. April 18, they were ordered into camp on the Richmond fair grounds (Camp Lee), where they were kept busy drilling and on heavy guard duty until July, 1862, when after a long, hard march from Win- chester they arrived at Manassas Junction, and on July 21, 1862. participated in their first battle. Second Manassas (Bull Run). The Pulaski Guards had then become Com- pany C, Fourth \'irginia Infantry, forming, with other regiments, the First Virginia Brigade, afterwards the Stonewall Brigade, commanded by General "Stonewall" Jack- son. At their first battle. Company C lost, in killed and wounded, twenty-one out of their original sixty members. On April 23,

1862, the company was reorganized, James

N. Bosang being made first lieutenant, his brother, VV. Henry Bosang, third lieutenant. Soon afterward James N. Bosang was pro- moted captain, his brother, W. Henry, sec- ond lieutenant. After an adventurous army career. Captain Bosang, after fighting in nearly every battle in which his brigade took part, including the fighting around Spottsyl- vania, was wounded and after lying in the brush for two days, attempted to escape within his own lines, surrendered with three other Confederates who. like himself, saw no other alternative but death. He found some Masonic friends among his captors who started him on his way to a Northern prison with a five dollar bill, which he ac- cepted as a Masonic favor. After having his wound treated in a Washington hospital for a month, Captain Bosang was trans- ferred to the old capital prison in Washing- ton and later was in Fort Delaware, on an island in the Delaware river, where he was confined until the war closed. While in prison, he carried on quite a business in making gutta percha jewelry from buttons, and footing boots, earning as high as five dollars daily. He was stricken with pneu- monia, and while in the hospital used about all his savings in feeing the nurse to bring him extra food, this nurse also a Confed- erate prisoner, whom Captain Bosang calls a "dirty galvanized scamp," making good use of his opportunities to enrich himself at the expense of the sick who had money. After General Lee's surrender, about three hundred of the prisoners not crediting the report of the surrender and refusing to take the oath of allegiance, were retained at Fort Delaware, consequently, it was not until July 25, 1865. that he arrived at Dublin, Vir- ginia, near his home, Newheim, the only one of the brothers to return. W. Henry Bosang was badly wounded at Manassas, was dis- charged for disability, later raised a com- pany at Dublin, was wounded in defence of Wytheville, again entered the army, was promoted to the rank of major and after the surrender made his way to Mexico. John Bosang. the youngest brother, although un- fit for duty and against Captain Bosang's persuasions, insisted on fighting at the bat- tle of the Wilderness and was shot through the heart, at the head of- his company, al- though as non-commissioned officer his place was in the rear rank. He was hardly eighteen years of age. The last time the