Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/596

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

dred, married John Guy. 5. Rosamond, born May 15, 1794, died June 16, 1836; married Howard Y. Bennett. 6. General William Lynch Smith, born April 7, 1796, died June

12, 1876; married (first) Mary Terry Har- rison, August 21, 1817; married (second) Mrs. Nellie McGregor in 1868. 7. Margaret, married John Black. 8. Colonel James Grif- fin, see forward.

Colonel James Griffin Bearing, son of Captain James and Betsy (Adams) Bear- ing, was born September 27, 1800, and died April 9, 1843. He married, March 5, 1834, Mary Anna Lynch, daughter of Anselm and Susannah (Miller-Baldwin) Lynch (see Lynch line). Children: i. Anselm Lynch, born Becember 23, 1834, died November 12, 1.857, unmarried. 2. Susan Lynch, born March 6, 18^8, died September 27, 1S92; married, April 3, 1861, Robert Henry Ward, great-grandson of Patrick Henry. 3. James, see forward. 4. Mary Anna, born January

13, 1843; married, April 22, 1868, Thomas Fauntleroy, a descendant of Colonel Moore P'auntleroy, emigrant to Virginia in 1641.

Brigadier-General James Bearing, son of Colonel James Griffin Bearing and his wife, Mary Ann (Lynch) Bearing, was born in Campbell county, Virginia, April 25, 1840. He was educated in Hanover Academy, ^'irginia, and in 1858 was appointed a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point. He resigned as soon as the adherence of Virginia to the Confederacy was determined upon, and entered the Con- federate army. He chose the artillery ser- vice at the outset, becoming a lieutenant of the Washington artillery of New Orleans, a fine organization which created much en- thusiasm on its arrival in Virginia. His brilliant service in the artillery led to his promotion to captain of a battery attached to Pickett's division. As a lieutenant and captain he participated in the principal battles of the Army of Northern Virginia until after Chancellorsville, when he was promoted to major and put in command of a battalion of eighteen guns in the reserve artillery of Longstreet's corps. He reached the battlefield of Gettysburg with Pickett's division and took part in the tremendous artillery duel which followed on the third day. Here he earnestly advocated a charge with artillery, but this being contrary to all precedent in warfare, his advice was not followed — subsequently it was recognized,

by high officers present at the battle, to have been born of genius.

In the winter of 1863-64, Pickett having been assigned with the remnant of his di- vision to the district of North Carolina, with headquarters at Petersburg, Virginia, found himself in need of cavalry, and collecting various companies of mounted men, he wrote to the secretary of war, "I shall as- sign them to the command of Major Bear- ing, and ask that he may be ordered to the command of these troops, with the tempo- rary rank of colonel. He is a young officer of daring and coolness combined, the very man for the service upon which he is going, a good disciplinarian and at the same time generally beloved by his men. I am not saying too much in his absence in assuring you that General Longstreet would strong- ly endorse his claims to promotion had he the opportunity." Bearing was at once given this command, though Lee wrote a few days later in ordering the Newbern ex- pedition, "I propose Major Bearing for the command of the artillery of this expedition." The appreciation of his service in the artil- lery was still further shown on April 5, 1864, when Lieutenant-Colonel Bearing was ordered to report to General Lee for assign- ment to command of the horse artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia, Bearing's service was, however, from the beginning of 1864 in the cavalry. The regiment col- lected for him by Pickett was called Bear- ing's Confederate Cavalry, and other cav- alry commands were put in his charge dur- ing the Newbern expedition in which he was notably distinguished. It was during the Newbern expedition that Bearing was at last able to test his theory of charging vvith artillery — the first such tactics adopted in military annals. He, in command of cav- alry, was charging a fort, when he recog- nized his old battalion of artillery and or- dered it to charge also. The artillery and infantry then charged with the cavalry, Plymouth was taken with a modicum of force and Bearing was promoted to briga- dier-general on the battlefield. He was the youngest officer of his rank in the Confed- erate service, and at the time of his fatal wound was just in receipt of a letter from General Lee saying the papers for his pro- motion to major-general were then in the hands of the secretary of war, adding "a promotion already too long delayed by reason