Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/728

 ginia, died in infancy. 2. Charles Arthur, died in infancy. 3. John Heath, of Loudoun county, Virginia. 4. Judith Ann, who mar- ried Martin O. Butcher. 5. Silas Brown, of Fauquier county, Virginia, died there in 1890. 6. James Innes, who died in 1877, leaving issue. 7. Elizabeth Marye, who married James M. Morehead, of Fauquier county. Virginia, and had issue. 8. Eppa, of whom further. 9. George William, who was a physician at Warrenton, Virginia. 10. Alary Brent, who married Major Thomas R. Foster, of Marshall, Virginia, and died in 1896, without issue, ii. Hannah Brown Xeal, who married Lycurgus Smith.

(V) General Eppa (2) Hunton, son of Colonel Eppa (i) and Elizabeth Marye (Brent) Hunton, was born September 22., 1822, in Fauquier county, Virginia. He was educated at the New Baltimore Academy presided over by Rev. John Ogilvie ; he taught school for three years and at the same time studied law under the guidance of Judge John Webb Tyler, and was admit- ted to the Virginia state bar in 1843 before he was of age. He began practice in Prince William county, Virginia, and was common- wealth attorney in that county from 1849 to 1861. In i860 he was a presidential elector on the Breckenridge ticket, and in 1861 he was a member of the Secession Convention which met at Richmond, Virginia, in Feb- ruary, 1861, and served through its first session. After the passage of the ordinance he was made a member of the military com- mittee to recommend means of defense ; however, being a man of military training, he gave up his civil office for active military service in the field.

He was colonel of Virginia militia in 1843, and in 1847 general, commanding a militia brigade, which commission he resigned to enter the Confederate army. An application was drawn up and signed by his colleagues in the Secession Convention, upon which he was appointed colonel of the Eighth Vir- ginia Regiment, in the Confederate States army, which he was ordered to organize and equip ready for service. His regiment took an active part in the battles of Manassas, Ball's lUuff, in the seven days' fighting around Richmond, at Gaine's Mill, and later at Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, Sailor's Creek, and numerous other ])laces. At Gaine's Mill. June 27, 1862, Pickett's l)rigade made an assault and penetrated three fortified lines of the enemy ; General Pickett was wounded early in the action, so the com- mand devolved upon Colonel Eppa Hunton as next in rank, and he pushed the assault to a successful issue, although he was not officially given credit for his achievement. After the battle of Gettysburg, in which he was wounded and his horse killed in the famous charge of Pickett's division, Colonel Hunton was made brigade commander succeeding General Garnett, and served as brigadier-general thereafter to the end of the war. On April 6, 1865, he was captured in the Sailor's Creek fight, and confined in Fort Warren until July, 1865, when he was released. His home in Brentsville, in Prince William county, Virginia, was destroyed by Federal troops during the war, so after the surrender he lived at Warrenton, Fauquier county, Virginia.

General Eppa Hunton was elected as a Democrat from the Eighth Virginia District to the forty-third, forty-fourth, forty-fifth, and forty-sixth Congresses, his term of service beginning December i, 1873, and ending March 3. 1881. He was appointed by Governor McKinney to fill a vacancy in the United States senate, caused by the death of Hon. J. S. Barbour, and took his seat June i, 1892, was subsequently elected by the Virginia legislature to fill the unexpired term, and served in the senate until March 3, 1895, with distinction. While in the senate he served as chairman of the select committee on the University of the United States, and was a member of the committees on the District of Columbia, education and labor, post offices and post roads, relations with Canada ; also on a select committee on the condition of the Potomac river front. In 1877 he was a member of the electoral commission. After his retirement from Congress he practiced law in Washington, D. C., although he continued to maintain his residence at Warrenton, Virginia. He was a member of the Episcopal church. He was a distinguished lawyer, soldier and statesman, whose integrity of character was above suspicion. He died October 11, 1908, in Richmond, Virginia.

General Eppa Hunton married Lucy Caroline Weir, in June, 1848, in Prince William county. Virginia. She was Dorn February 20, 1825, in Tappahannock, Essex county, Virginia, and died September 4. 1899. the daughter of Hon. Robert and