Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/365

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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in Amelia county, X'irginia, in 1812, and died in Vevay. Indiana, in 1846. He was gradu- ated from William and Mary College in 1829, and engaged in the practice of law as soon as he was admitted to the bar. He gave promise of great brilliancy, and was a member of the Indiana state senate at the time of his death at the age of thirty-four years. He married Mary Jane Craig, a daughter of George Craig, noted as an In- dian fighter, and who in infancy was car- ried across the mountains on a pack horse. His maternal great-grandmother was a sister of Robert Emmet, the Irish patriot, who married a Lowry. Mrs. Eggleston married (second) the Rev. \\'illiamson Ter- rell, D. D., lived successively in New Al- bany, Vevay and Madison, Indiana, and died in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Eggleston had children : Dr. Edward Eggleston, historian and novelist, died in 1902 ; George Gary, editor and author, died in 191 1; Jane L., married Rev. Charles H. Zimmerman, of Chicago ; Joseph W'illiam, of whom further.

Joseph William Eggleston, D. D. S., son of Joseph Gary and Mary Jane (Craig) Eg- gleston, was born in Vevay, Switzerland county, Indiana, August 12, 1844. As his father died when he was two years of age, and his mother remarried when he was five, his early years were spent in New Albany, Vevay, and Madison, Indiana, according to the location of the pastorate of his step- father. After the death of his mother he went to \^irginia, where he lived with his uncle, Edward W. Eggleston. at the family homestead in .Amelia county, known as "Lo- cust Grove." His education was commenced when he was but four years of age, and at the age of ten years he was so far advanced that he commenced the study of the Latin language, and two years later, that of Greek. He was well advanced in these studies, as well as the higher branches of mathematics, when the outbreak of the war with the states made a change in his contemplated career.

On June 15, 1861, he enlisted in Company H, Forty-fourth Virginia Infantry, and took an active part in the Rich Mountain campaign. Having been transferred to the Nelson Light .'Xrtillery, he served first under Captain Woodville Latham, and subsequent- ly under Captain James N. Lampkin. In .-\ugust. 1861, he was appointed sergeant, although but seventeen years of age, and at

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the age of twenty years was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant. He was active in the Army of South Carolina Coast, and was a participant in the battle of James Island or Secessionville. On October 22, 1862, he particularly distinguished himself, being in the battle at Yemmassee 'Creek early in the day, and later in that at Old Pocotaligo, be- ing wounded in the latter engagement. Up- on the return of his battery to Virginia in 1863, it became Company B, Haskell's Bat- talion of Artillery, First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, which fought as infantry from the Wilderness to Petersburg, by reason of lack of horses, and then became the famous Mortar Battery at the Crater. This was removed to Chaffin's farm, Sep- tember 29, 1864, and participated in the as- sault on Fort Harrison. All of their guns and the larger number of their men were lost in the retreat from this place, after which Dr. Eggleston and four of his com- rades joined the First Richmond Howitzers, and served until the surrender of Lee at Appomattox.

At the close of the war Dr. Eggleston was engaged in farming for a period of two years, then removed to New York City and took up journalistic work as a reporter. The uncertainty of this, however, as a satisfac- tory and regular income provider, deter- mined him to abandon it, and he commenced the study of dentistry, and was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Dental Sur- gery in 1871. He at once esfablished him- self in the practice of his profession in Fishkill on the Hudson, and the following year established himself in Richmond, Vir- ginia, and has been actively and successfully identified with dentistry ever since that time. While living in New York, he was also editor, for a time, of the "New York Daily Witness." He has achieved a con- siderable reputation as an author, having written and published numerous magazine and newspaper stories and articles. Among his published volumes are: "Masonic Life of Washington." 1899; "Tuckahoe. an Old- Fashioned Story of an Old-Fashioned People," 190.^. In political opinion Dr. Eg- gleston is a Democrat, but he has the cour- age of his convictions, and will not allow himself to be bound by partisan ties. As an instance of this it may be mentioned that, in the presidential campaign of 1900, he voted for McKinley against Bryan. His