Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/140

 650

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

evinced by personal letters which he had in his possession addressed to Captain Walter Coles, from Quarter. Master-General A. C. Myers, Major-General James G. Paxton and Major Johnson. Just before the close of the war he was commissioned to furnish the army of General Lee with all necessary horses but before he could assume charge of this position together with its promotion in rank the surrender came. In i860 he was a delegate to the Democratic conventions which met in Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland. In 1869-71 he was a member of the Virginia state legis- lature, and although he was urged to again become a candidate for re-election, he re- fused, pleading pressing duties and private responsibilities. For many years after the close of the civil war he was a member of the Democratic committee of Pittsylvania, and during the reconstruction period he worked tirelessly to restore the South to its former high standard and to secure white supremacy in place of ignorant dominion. In public office, in private business trans- actions, in all occasions of life causing con- tact with his fellow-men his actions were marked by unfaltering honor and an in- tegrity that left no room for doubt or ques- tion. He resided on the home plantation. Coles Hill, Pittsylvania county, Virginia, and despite the weight of almost ninety years took an active interest in the affairs of the day and the home acres. At his death there passed away a splendid type which will soon disappear from our land, a man, a noble gentleman and devoted churchman, a lifelong resident of the county who filled a large and honorable place in its history, full of years and the recipient of the regard and esteem of his countrymen.

He married, in 1862. Lavinia Catherine Jordan, born in Luray, Page county, Vir- ginia, August 3, 1833, died January 20, 1906, daughter of Gabriel and Elizaijeth Ann (Sibert) Jordan. Her father, born in 1792, died in 1862, was a patriotic citizen, devot- ing his life to the improvement of the sec- tion of the country in which he lived ; a man of many affairs, who had accumulated con- siderable wealth at the outbreak of the war between the states. Her father fitted out a cavalry company at his own expense, her youngest brother, Macon, being made cap- tain ; it being known as Jordan's Cavalry. Her maternal grand-uncle, a Mr. A\'ithers of

.South Carolina, served with distinction on the staff of General Sumpter. Her Jordan ancestors were of English origin and related t(j the Washingtons of England. Her grand- father, Thomas Jordan, fought in the revolu- tion, associated with the Marquis De Lafay- ette. In a letter written years afterward, in 1824. to her father, Gabriel Jordan, of Luray, Virginia, the Alarquis De Lafayette regrets his inability to visit him, "The worthy son of ir.y gallant old Comrade in arms, Thomas Jordan." Her brother, Francis, was a cap- tain on General Beauregard's staff. Her brother. Colonel Gabriel Jordan, was a jirominent railroad man in the South, being at different times vice-president and general manager of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and the Houston & Texas Central Railroad.

Her eldest brother, General Thomas Jor- dan, for whom Thomas Jordan Coles was named, was a West Point graduate in 1840, two of his classmates having been General U. S. Grant and William T. Sherman, the latter having been his room-mate. General Thomas Jordan entered service at once and early distinguished himself in Florida in the Seminole uprising, 1841 to 1843. \\niile still a lieutenant he served in the Mexican war, his company with three others being the first battalion to cross the Rio Grande, as a cover to the crossing of General Taylor's whole army into Mexico. Later, he was made captain on (leneral Taylor's staff' and was assigned to the quartermaster's depart- ment, and finally, owing to the illness of his senior, he had charge of all the quarter- master's arrangements, and was the last American soldier to leave the soil of Mexico. His efficiency in this service was especially mentioned by Cieneral Twiggs, the com- mander at Vera Cruz. From 1852 to 1S60 he served on the Pacific coast during the suppression of an Indian insurrection in the present state of Washington. In May, 1861, under a sense of superior obligation, he re- signed his commission in the United States army and offered his sword and life to his native state, Virginia. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel on the staff of General Phillip St. George Cocke. Colonel Jordan became convinced of the strategic import- ance of Manassas Junction and the critical necessity of immediately occupying it in force. He successfully commended the movement to General Lee, bv whom Colo-