Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/227

 it Thomas Jefferson !'

no better soldiers ever fought; and we hope that you and the public will accept this view of the case as an apology for so long an article. We are the war correspondents, though our story is nearly thirty- five years old.

J. B. MOORE.

[From !!> Richmond, Va., 7Yme, October 29, 1899.]

CAPTAIN THOMAS JEFFERSON PAGE. '

How This Intrepid Officer Defied Superior Numbers.

TWO AGAINST THE STONEWALL.

The Niagara and the Sacramento Feared to Give Her Battle Captain Craven, U. S. N., Court-Martialed for Cowardice.

Died in Rome, Italy, October 26, 1899, Captain Thomas Jefferson Page, in the 92d Year of His Age.

Captain, or as he was more familiarly known, Commodore Page, was born at "Shelley," Gloucester county, and his boyhood was spent there. In 1827 he was appointed a cadet at the United States Naval Academy by President John Quincy Adams, in recognition of the services of his paternal and maternal grandfathers, Governor John Page and Thomas Nelson, Governor, of Yorktown, he being the son of Mann Page and Betsy Nelson. The United States Naval Academy was then a receiving ship, stationed in the harbor of New York, and young Page was graduated with the honors of a class of forty-five members.

He was then commissioned a midshipman, and made several nota- ble cruises. One of these was on the old Dolphin to Asiatic waters. All of the officers and many of the crew were stricken down with fever, until Midshipman Page was the ranking officer. He assumed command and brought the ship to a home port, and was rewarded by Congress raising his rank. Captain Page was but 18 years old at that time, but even at this early age was noted for his valor and cool judgment.