Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/90

 4 Southern llixtt>ric(il Siii'/t'd/ Paper*.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF LIEUTENANT-COLO- NEL WILLIAM FREDERICK NIEMEYER,

Sixty-first Virginia Infantry Regiment. By COLONEL WILLIAM H. STEWART, Portsmouth, Va.

WILLIAM FREDERICK NIEMEYER was born in the county of Nor- folk and State of Virginia, on the I2th day of May, 1840, and hero- ically met his death at the head of his regiment in the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on the I2th day of May, 1864. his twenty-fourth birthday.

His great grandfather, Hans Heinrich Neimeyer, was born at Hoya, Germany, in 1734, and died in 1806.

His grandfather, John Christian Niemeyer, was born in 1776, at Verden, near Bremen, and came to America at the age of 18 years, and in 1813 he married Ann McLean, his second wife, the grand- mother of the suoject of this sketch, at Moyock, in Currituck county, North Carolina. His father, William Angus Neimeyer, died Feb- ruary 3d, 1900 ; was born April 28th, 1816, and married Sarah Howard Chandler (now living) on the 3ist day of July, 1839. She is the daughter of John A. Chandler, who was one of the foremost citizens and most distinguished lawyers in Tidewater Virginia of his day.

Colonel Niemeyer was the eldest of twelve children, three sisters and nine brothers. His brother, John Chandler Niemeyer, First Lieutenant of Company "I," Ninth Virginia Infantry Regiment, was killed in the famous charge of Pickett's Virginians at Gettys- burg on the 3d day of July, 1863.

William Frederick Niemeyer was a promising child with the no- blest predilections. On the death of his grandfather Chandler, when not quite eight years old, he wrote the following tender and touching letter of condolence to his grandmother :

APRIL 16, 1848. My Dear Grandma :

I am very sorry that grandpa died, but the Lord will take care of you ; do not weep, he is in the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ ; he has got a crown of glory upon his head ; he has an arm-chair, and he is singing and is shouting in glory. We must try to be good