Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/141

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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nel Jordan was complimented in a personal letter and assigned as adjutant-general of the forces which were thereupon ordered to assemble there. On June 3rd General Beau- regard took command and on July 21st the first battle of Manassas or Bull Run was fought. After the battle Colonel Jordan suggested to General Beauregard that the I-"ederal surgeons be released without parole to which General Beauregard acceded, this being the first time in war that an enemy's surgeons were thus treated as non-combat- ants. During the Shiloh and Corinth cam- paigns Colonel Jordan was the adjutant- general of the Confederate army, and then promoted a brigadier-general.

In 1869 General Jordan consented to direct the revolutionary forces of Cuba and was commissioned by the Cuban govern- ment commander-in-chief. The odds against him in that campaign are now well known. Spain valued his services against her one hundred thousand dollars which she placed upon his head. General Beauregard in his history pronounced General Thomas Jordan as one of the ablest military organizers liv- ing. After the civil war and prior to his services in Cuba, General Jordan had been for a time editor of the "Memphis Appeal." After his return from Cuba to New York he founded the "Financial and Mining Rec- ord," and was recognized as an authority on the silver question. General Thomas Jor- dan was born 1819 in Luray, Virginia, died in New York City, 1895.

Children of Walter (2j and Lavinia Cath- erine (Jordan) Coles: i. Walter (3), born July 25, 1863; manager of the Coles Hill farm; married Miss Wooding, of Virginia, and has a son, Walter (4). 2. Russell Jor- dan, born December 31, 1865, for twenty- five years identified with the tobacco trade of Danville, Virginia. 3. Agnes Cabell, born April 17, 1868; married Edward B. Ambler, of Monroe, Virginia. 4. Lettice Carring- ton. born September 17, 1870, died in 1882, aged twelve years. 5. Harry Carrington, born February 26, 1873 ; living in New York City, connected with the United States civil service; married Miss Marshall, of Fau- quier county, Virginia, a great-granddaugh- ter of Chief Justice Marshall. 6. Thomas Jordan, of whom further.

Thomas Jordan Coles, youngest of the six children of Walter (2) and Lavinia Cather- ine (Jordan) Coles, was born at Coles Hill.

Pittsylvania county, Virginia, July 5, 1875. He attended the local schools until he was eleven years of age, then entered the Ken- more University High School at Amherst Court House, Virginia. He was afterward successively a student at Greenwood School, Greenwood, Virginia, Keswick School for Boys, Cobham, Albemarle county, Virginia, and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in the last-named institu- tion taking a teacher's course, after entering the pedagogical profession. He began this career when he was eighteen years of age and continued therein until his thirtieth year, in that period holding positions as principal in several of the leading academies of the state. For the three following years ht engaged in the insurance business, re- turning to Chatham in 1907 and establish- ing in that line, in December, 1909, being appointed by the court treasurer of Pitt- sylvania county, the largest county in the state, assuming the duties of the office on January i, 1910. At the election of 1912 he was returned to this position without oppo- sition, his present term expiring in igib. Immediately after returning to Chatham, Mr. Coles was elected clerk of the local school board, and for the past six years he has been a vestryman of the Episcopal church at that place. His fraternal societies are the Masonic order, Pittsylvania Lodge, No. 24, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Royal Arch Chapter, No. 56; Dove Com- m.andery. No. 7, Knights Templar ; Acca Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine ; the Modern Woodmen of America, No. 11641 ; the Junior Order of Unhed American Mechanics, No. 117; the lienevolent and Protective Order of Elks, \o. 22"], Danville, Virginia. In the admin- istration of the finances of the county he has displayed careful ability and systematic thoroughness that have gained him much favorable mention, and among the public servants of Pittsylvania county there is none who holds the respect and confidence of its citizens to a greater degree than does Mr. Coles. He is backed by generations of men noted in county, state and nation, men whose deeds are written boldly across the history of the country, whose memory he reverences and to whom no shame can be l>rought through him. Mr. Coles is a busy man of affairs, universally well-regarded, popular because of a pleasing personality,