Richard G. Morris, class of 1848

Richard Morris was in the Randolph-Macon class 1848. He served as a private in Company D of the 44th Virginia Infantry. He was captured on the first day of the fighting at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. Two days later he was taken to Belle Plain, Virginia along with hundreds of other Confederate soldiers. On May 18, he was transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland, another holding location for prisoners of war. By July 30, 1864 he had been taken to the notorious Elmira Prison in Elmira, New York where he died of “chronic diarrhea.” Richard G. Morris is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York in grave number 341.

Contributed by Matthew Guillen '14

William Arthur Shepard, class of 1857 (A.B.) and 1858 (M.A.),

A native of Boston, MA, William Arthur Shepard entered the college as both a student and as Adjunct Professor of Chemistry. Upon graduation in 1857, he remained as Assistant Professor of Chemistry until June 1861. He enlisted in Company E of the 12th Virginia Infantry on July 22, 1861. After recovering from a wound received at Chancellorsville, he was detailed to the Commissary Department in Weldon, N.C.,  discharged from the 12th VA, and commissioned as major in the Quartermaster Department. After the war, Shepard taught in Petersburg, VA, before rejoning the R-MC faculty in 1870 as Professor of Chemistry in its new Ashland location, where he died in 1895.  Shepard in buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.

John Davidson Blackwell, class of 1859 (A.B.) and 1862 (A.M.)

JOHN DAVIDSON BLACKWELL, class of 1859, enlisted in the 20th VA Infantry as 1st Lieutenant, serving from 1861 through Oct. 18, 1862, when the unit was mustered out; on March 29, 1863 he enlisted in the 57th VA Infantry, Co A. He was captured at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, imprisoned at Fort McHenry, MD, and Fort Delaware, DE, and exchanged on July 15, 1863. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House, VA on April 9, 1865. Blackwell was the son of John Chapman Blackwell, R-MC's first graduate in 1835, as well as the nephew of John Letcher, governor of VA 1860-1864, who had also briefly attended the college. Blackwell was awarded an A.M. degree by R-MC in 1862, and after the war practiced law, serving as Commonwealth’s Attorney for Danville, VA in 1873.

James Lee Gillespie, class of 1844 (A.B.) and 1861 (A.M.)

JAMES LEE GILLESPIE, awarded an A.B. in 1844 and an A.M. in 1861, served as surgeon with the rank of major in the 1^st West Virginia Infantry and the 14^th West Virginia Infantry. He remained in the Union Army until March, 1864, when he resigned for health reasons. At this time, he is the only R-MC alumnus known to have served in the Union Army.

William Anderson Hightower, student 1859-1861

WILLIAM ANDERSON HIGHTOWER attended R-MC from 1859-1861, leaving school to enlist as a private in the 23rd Virginia Infantry, Company E. He was wounded in September of 1862 and taken prisoner of war, then was paroled and exchanged in October, 1862. Returning to his unit, he was promoted to First Sergeant in January, 1863.

He would not survive his second wound at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863, and he died on May 21, 1863 three months before his 20th birthday. His uniform is on display at the National Park Service’s Chancellorsville Battlefield Visitor Center, showing where his right leg was amputated.

Robert Watkins Bailey, student 1858-1861

ROBERT WATKINS BAILEY died while serving as 2^nd Lieutenant in the 44^th Virginia Infantry, Company H. He had enlisted in June 1861 as a private and was promoted in May 1862. Bailey had survived a wound on May 3, 1863 at Chancellorsville only to die July 3, 1863 from a wound received on July 2, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg. A native of Amelia County, his remains were reburied in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery after the end of the war.

A chair that belonged to Bailey while he was a student at R-MC from 1858-1861 is held in the College Archives.

Leonidas Irvin Gee, student 1858-1859

LEONIDAS IRVIN GEE, a native of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, attended Randolph-Macon College from 1858 to 1859. When the conflict erupted in 1861, Gee enlisted as a Sergeant in Company B of the 56th Virginia Infantry. He saw action during the Seven Days’ fighting around Richmond during which time he was shot in the hand at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill on July 27, 1862. As a result, he was taken to Chimborazo Hospital overlooking Rockett’s Landing in Richmond. Gee would again see combat, this time outside the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. On July 3, 1863, his regiment would, quite literally, be in the center of the front line of one of the most infamous infantry assaults in military history: Pickett’s Charge. Gee, with wounds in his arm and leg, was left on the field and taken by the Federals to the II Corps’ field hospital. Days later, a result of his wounds, Leonidas Gee’s leg would be amputated by Federal Surgeons. Leonidas Gee died of his wounds in Gettysburg on July 17, 1863 (the date on his burial record), where he was buried in a Pennsylvania cornfield. His body was disinterred on June 13, 1872 to Richmond where it rests today in Hollywood Cemetery.


Contributed by Matthew Guillen, R-MC Class of 2014

Henry Harrison Sneed, student 1856-1861

HENRY HARRISON SNEED, who attended R-MC from 1856-1861, enlisted as a corporal in the 38th Virginia Infantry, Company G, on May 18, 1861. he was promoted to sergeant in 1862, and was detailed to the Commissary Department from Dec.1862-Dec. 1864. Sneed became an Episcopalian minister in Tennessee after the war.
His unpublished memoir, Recollections of the Civil War and Other Items of Family History, is available in the College Archives.

John Letcher, student 1833-1834, governor of VA 1860-1864

Governor JOHN LETCHER of Virginia attended R-MC briefly in the winter of 1833-34 before being called back to Lexington for political reasons. He graduated from Washington Academy, now Washington and Lee University. Letcher served as governor from 1860-1864.

Letcher married the sister of R-MC's first graduate, John Chapman Blackwell, who received his A.B. in 1835.

John Herbert Claiborne, class of 1848 (A.B.) and 1853 (A.M.)

JOHN HERBERT CLAIBORNE, who received his A.B in 1848 and his A.M. in 1853, joined the 12th Virginia Infantry on April 19, 1861 as surgeon with the rank of captain. Claiborne left the 12th Virginia before its first battle when he was placed in charge of all Petersburg military hospitals on February 15, 1862, where he remained for the duration of the war. He evacuated with the army and surrendered on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House. Dr. Claiborne was a prominent physician after the war, and is buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.

A copy of his 1904 memoir, entitled Seventy-five Years in Old Virginia; With Some Account of the Life of the Author and Some History of the People Amongst Whom His Lot Was Cast,--Their Character, Their Condition, and Their Conduct Before the War, During the War and After the War (available online), is available in the College Archives.

James W. Hunnicutt, student 1834-1836

JAMES W. HUNNICUTT, a Methodist minister who attended R-MC from 1834-1836, had a different war experience and perspective on the conflict from most of the students, alumni, and faculty who sided with the South in the conflict. An ardent Unionist, Hunnicutt was editor of the Christian Banner newspaper in Fredericksburg at the outbreak of the war. He was forced to suspend publication during the first year of the war, then resumed publication for several months in 1862, but fled Fredericksburg under threat of death before the Confederate occupation in late 1862, spending the reminder of the war in Philadelphia.

In 1863, while in exile in Philadelphia, Hunnicutt published The Conspiracy Unveiled. The South Sacrificed; Or, The Horrors Of Secession (available online). A copy of this book is in the College Archives.

Anthony M. Keiley, student, dates unknown

ANTHONY M. KEILEY attended R-MC in the 1840s or 1850s, possibly the preparatory department or law school rather than the college; the official records of his attendance do not survive. Keiley, a newspaper editor in Petersburg, had enlisted in the Petersburg Rifles (12th Virginia Infantry, Company E) at the start of the war. He resigned in 1863 after being elected to the Virginia legislature, but later joined the reserves during the Siege of Petersburg, where he was captured. He was a prisoner of war at Point Lookout, MD and Elmira, NY from June-October, 1864.

Keiley published an important work on his imprisonment after the war.  To read it and for more information on his later career, go to Personal Accounts of the Civil War by R-MC Alumni

Jefferson Waite Duffey, student 1867-1870

JEFFERSON WAITE DUFFEY attended Randolph-Macon College after the Civil War, from 1867-1870.


On May 1, 1864 at age 16, he enlisted as a private in McNeill’s Rangers, an independent irregular military company. This partisan ranger company was involved in guerilla warfare in western Virginia and West Virginia, and was known for daring raids on railroad lines, Union supply shipments and federal camps. In February, 1865, the Rangers captured two Union Major Generals, George Crook and Benjamin Kelley, spiriting them out of downtown Cumberland, MD., a railroad town occupied by several thousand Union soldiers.
 
Duffey published two accounts of his unit's raids. To read them and find out more about Duffey, go to Personal Accounts of the Civil War by Randolph-Macon Alumni

James Clayton Reed, student 1859-1861

JAMES CLAYTON REED, son of a Methodist minister and older brother of Walter Reed of yellow fever and military hospital fame, attended R-MC from 1859-1861, dropping out to enlist in the Bedford Light Artillery. His memoir, Some of the Experiences of James C. Reed : As a Soldier in the Army of the Confederate States, is available in the College Archives. In it, Reed candidly recounts losing his hand in battle. While walking home for recuperation after leaving the military hospital, he heard a buzzing sound behind him. The sound was a swarm of flies pursuing his bleeding handless arm. Reed’s wound healed, and he returned to active duty with one hand. An excerpt from his memoir describing this incident was published in the August, 2000 issue of Civil War Times Illustrated ("On my way rejoicing,"vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 22+). He was present at his company's surrender at Appomattox.

John Willis Ellis, student 1836-1837, governor of North Carolina in 1861

JOHN WILLIS ELLIS, governor of North Carolina from 1859-1861, presided over his state when it seceded in May 1861. Ellis died of consumption shortly after, in July, 1861. His famous response to President Lincoln's call for troops from North Carolina was “I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina.” Ellis attended R-MC for one year, 1836-1837, before transferring to the University of North Carolina.

Leroy Summerfield Edwards, Class of 1859

LEROY SUMMERFIELD EDWARDS attended R-MC from 1857-1859, graduating with an A.B. in 1859 and receiving an A.M. in 1866. He was teaching at Petersburg Female College in 1861 when he enlisted as a private in the 12th Virginia Infantry, Company E.

He was wounded in the arm September 14, 1862 at Crampton’s Gap, MD, and was promoted to sergeant in 1863. On May 8, 1864, he was taken prisoner of war, imprisoned at Point Lookout, MD from May-August 1864, and then transferred to the prison camp in Elmira, NY, referred to by prisoners as “Helmira,” where he remained from August, 1864 until February 1865 when he was paroled and exchanged. He returned to Richmond in March, 1865, left the city with the retreating army in early April, and surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

The LeRoy S. Edwards Papers 1853-1899, consisting of his Civil War letters in addition to diaries from his school days and from after the war, as well as many other personal materials, resides in the R-MC Archives. The letters have been digitized. For more information, see http://library.rmc.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/RMCCivilWar/RMCLeroySEdwards.html