John Nicholson Washington, student 1837-1838

Washington completed his education at Yale University, enrolling in January 1839. He was a lawyer  in New Bern, North Carolina in 1860. He enlisted as a private in January 1862 in Co. B, Clark's Special Battalion, North Carolina Militia, taking part in the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862. He relocated to Chatham County, NC where he spent the remainder of the war teaching and serving in the Chatham County Home Guard.

At the end of the war, he returned to New Bern, NC, where he was elected mayor in the summer of 1865. He left politics after serving a single term and resumed his career as a lawyer in New Bern. He died on February 14, 1869 and is buried in New Bern's Cedar Grove Cemertery.

James Albert Harrell (Harrold), student 1839-1840

Harrell adopted the spelling "Harrold" for his name.  Harrell's brother William's unpublished autobiographical notes place the two boys at R-MC in January, 1839. The Harrell brothers were dismissed from the College when they were caught with several others attending a circus in Clarksville, VA. James studied medicine with a local doctor and then attended medical school in Baltimore, MD.  He practiced medicine in North Carolina for many years  He was ordained in 1853 as an Episcopalian priest in Baltimore. He served as a chaplain and also as a surgeon in the Confederate army.

After the war, he moved to Washington, D.C. leading a number of churches there and in Maryland.  He eventually moved to Syracuse NY, where he died on July 9, 1903, shortly after relocating.

Walter Myrick, student 1858-1861

Myrick enlisted on July 15, 1861 as a private in Co. B of Waddill's Battalion VA Infantry, which later became Co. F of the 5th Battn VA Infantry.  In September 1862 he was transferred to Co. F of the 53rd VA Infantry, but as of October 31 he had still not reported to the new company and was considered AWOL. He joined the company in mid-November and by February 1863 was detailed on ambulance corps duty. He was promoted to sergeant on October 31, 1863.  Myrick was killed on September 29, 1864 at Fort Harrison, VA during the Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, part of the Siege of Petersburg.

Victor Moreau Brandon, Class of 1858

Brandon was a lawyer in Elizabeth City, NC in the 1860 census.  He enlisted May 8, 1861 as a private in the Camden Knights, Co. C of the 1st AR Infantry, the same company joined by Christopher Thrower, R-MC Class of 1859.  He was appointed 2nd lieutenant on July 25, 1862. Brandon was taken prisoner at Jackson, MS on May 15, 1863 and paroled at Demopolis, AL on June 5, 1863. He submitted his letter of resignation on December 1, 1863 in Abbeville, AL because he was suffering from tuberculosis, and his resignation was accepted January 11, 1864.

In 1863, he married the sister of R-MC alumni John W. Anthony and Benjamin Haden Anthony, who had married Brandon's sister, and after leaving the service resided at her family estate, Walnut Hill, near Evington, VA. Brandon died on April 28, 1866 and is believed to be buried in the Anthony Family Cemetery in Campbell County, VA

George K. Ligon, student 1859-1860

Ligon, a clerk, enlisted in Co. E of the 14th VA Infantry as a private on May 12, 1861. He was promoted to corporal on August 1, 1861. On February 2, 1862, he was detailed as a hospital steward, serving unitl he was discharged on August 15, 1862 due to the conscription act.

In 1870, Ligon was a druggist living in Hazlehurst. Mississippi.

George Feild, student 1862-1863

Feild (variantly spelled Field, Fields, Feilds) was sent to R-MC in the fall of 1862 after he was discharged for minority from Co. C of the 46th NC Infantry, which he had joined on April 16, 1862 as a private. When  the college closed in early 1863, he reenlisted in Co. C of the 46th NC Infantry in February 1863. he was hospitalized in Richmond, VA in December 1863 and April 1864 with chronic diarrhea, and again in August 1864 for an unknown ailment, and was on sick furlough from the middle of October until the middle of November 1864. He was taken prisoner at Hatcher's Run, VA on March 31, 1865 and sent to City Point, VA, from where he was sent on April 2, 1865 to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD. He was released on June 26, 1865 after taking the oath of allegiance.

Charles Grandison Feild, Jr., student 1862-1863

Feild (name variantly spelled Feilds, Field, and Fields), son of an Okolona, Mississippi CSA officer, entered R-MC as a cadet under the military curriculum in place in the fall of 1862 after having been expelled from VMI in February, 1862 for intoxication. When R-MC closed in early 1863, he returned to Mississippi and enlisted in Co. B of the 17th MS Partisan Rangers Cavalry.

In 1870, he was residing with his widowed mother in Okolona, MS and working as a hotel clerk in his mother's hotel. By 1900, he was a salesman in Yazoo City, MS. He died in Yazoo City on November 18, 1903.

Thomas Rowlett Friend, student 1859-1861

Friend, cousin of Charles N. and George W. Friend, enlisted as a private in Co. C of the 9th VA Infantry on August 29, 1861. He served extra duty with the engineering department in early 1862. For nearly 2 years, from the fall of 1862 through the summer of 1864, he was detached from his unit serving as a courier for General George Pickett.

After the war, he farmed in Chesterfield. VA. Friend died in 1915 and is buried in the Friend Family Cemetery in Chester, VA.

Charles Nathaniel Friend, student 1862-1863

Friend, younger brother of Dr. George W. Friend, enlisted as a private in the Richmond Howitzers, the 1st Co. VA Howitzers Light Artillery on April 19, 1864 at the age of 17. He surrendered at Richmond, VA on April 17, 1865 and took the oath of allegiance on April 18.

After the war, he returned to Chesterfield County, VA where he was a farmer in the 1870 census. By 1880, he was a merchant, and in 1900 and 1910 he is listed as an insurance agent. He died June 16, 1919 and is buried in Chesterfield County, VA in Sunset Memorial Park.

George William Friend, Class of 1848

Friend attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia after graduating from R-MC, receiving his M.D. in 1851. He was practicing medicine in Chesterfield County,VA at the beginning of the war. He served as an Assistant Surgeon during the war.

Dr. Friend continued his medical practice in Chesterfield County, VA after the war. He died May 5, 1905 of a cerebral hemorrhage and is buried in Maury Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

James Edward Leary, student 1857-1860

Leary enlisted as a corporal in Co. G of the 32nd NC Infantry on April 1, 1862. On July 15, 1862, his rank was reduced to private. On January 1, 1863, he transferred to Co. F of the 59th NC Regiment-4th NC Cavalry. He served ordnance sergeant from February-August 1863.

After the war, he moved to Arkansas. He was living in Phillips, AR in 1870 when he married. He is listed in the 1880 census in Marianna, Lee County, AR, where he was Justice of the Peace. From 1890-1892, he served as an examiner for the public schools in Marianna. By 1900, he was a teacher living in Lee County.

Thomas Montague Isbell, Class of 1836

Isbell practiced law in Cumberland County, VA for several years before moving to Jefferson County, VA (later WV), where he was a wealthy lawyer and planter . He served in the Virginia Senate as the representative of Jefferson and Berkeley counties from 1860-1862. He served very briefly as the first captain of what became Co. A of the 12th VA Cavalry. He was residing once again in Cumberland County, VA when he enlisted as a private in the 3rd Regiment VA Reserves on April 24, 1864 .  He took the oath of allegiance and applied for a presidential pardon on July 17, 1865, claiming he never held office under the Confederate government (although he had served in the legislature of a Confederate state).

After the war, he returned to Jefferson County, now a part of WV and resumed farming. He died on February 24, 1881 and is buried in Grace Cemetery in Berryville, Clarke County, VA.

William Meredith Cabell, Class of 1844

Cabell was,a lawyer in Lynchburg, VA in the1850 census and in Nelson County, VA in the1860 census, the year he moved to Buckingham County, VA.. He was drafted as a private on April 11, 1862 into Co. E of the 41st VA Infantry. He was discharged from duty on June 18, 1862. He returned to service on an unknown date as a private in Co. H of the 1st Regiment VA Infantry. Records indicate he was hospitalized with diarrhea at Chimborazo in Richmond, VA on March 10, 1865. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

After the war, he practiced law in Buckingham County, VA. He served Buckingham County in the VA House of Delegates from 1865-1867, having previously served Nelson County in that capacity from 1855-1856. He died November 2, 1898 and is buried in Richmond, VA in Hollywood Cemetery.

Robert Munroe Dickenson, student 1838-1839

Robert Munroe Dickenson received his medical degree from the University of Louisiana in 1843. He practiced medicine first in Tennessee and then moved to Louisiana, where he was a doctor in Jackson, LA in the 1850 census. He was a physician in Ashley County, AR at the outbreak of the war. He was exempt from regular military service due to his occupation and age, serving instead in the Ashley County Home Guard which was organized in November 1863.

He moved to Paris,TN in 1868 and practiced medicine. Dr. Dickenson purchased the Paris Intelligencer newspaper and was editor until 1882, when he moved to Orlando, FL. He died on May 4, 1900 and is buried in Orlando's Greenwood Cemetery.

Marcus Aurelius Clark(e), student 1853-1854

Clark, variantly spelled as Clarke, graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1857 and was practicing medicine in Brunswick County, VA in 1860.  He enlisted as a corporal in Co. A of the 5th Battalion VA Infantry on May 4, 1861. He was discharged for disability on September 18, 1861. Clark died from typhoid fever on November 10, 1862 and was buried in the cemetery at the family home, Northview, in Brunswick County, VA.

George Henry Ray, student 1859-1860

Ray, a Methodist minister, was appointed chaplain of the 3rd VA Cavalry on October 2, 1861, a regiment in which he would have been well acquainted with many of the men as it included the Boydton Cavalry, also known as the Mecklenburg Dragoons, which was designated as Company A of the 3rd VA Cavalry. He resigned effective August 9, 1862.

He returned to his service as a minister in the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which he served until 1909.  Reverend Ray died on March 18, 1911 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. 

Edward G. McGehee, student 1865-66

McGehee, a native of Charlotte County, VA, enlisted as a sergeant on an unknown date in Company E of the 2nd VA Light Artillery, a company which his father had organized and served as captain. In 1862, his father resigned as captain and the company was reorganized as Co. E of the 22nd Battalion VA Infantry, and McGehee was promoted to 2nd lieutenant by May 1862, He was promoted to first lieutenant in June 1862. He was hospitalized August 17, 1862 for an unknown reason and had not yet returned to his company by October.  McGehee was wounded in the foot in may 1863 and hospitalized in Farmville, VA on May12. He returned to duty July 4, 1863. The company roll in February 1864 indicates McGehee was commanding the company. He was captured at Petersburg, VA on August 19, 1864 and was sent first to Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC on August 21and then to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE on August 29. He took the oath of allegiance and was released on June 17, 1865.

After the war he moved to Prince Edward County, VA where he farmed and became a merchant. He died in 1933 and is buried in the cemetery at Briery Presbyterian Church in Keysville, VA. His tombstone lists his rank as captain, although his service record indicates his rank as lieutenant.

Walker Frederick Jones, student 1839-1840

Jones received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1848 and practiced medicine in Gloucester County, VA. He enlisted as a private in Co. C of the 21st Regiment Virginia Militia on October 19, 1861. Due to the medical needs of his county, he was given leave by the board of officers as a practicing physician.

Dr. Jones practiced medicine in Gloucester County, VA for the rest of his life and died on April 17, 1901. He is buried in Gloucester County, VA in Bellamy United Methodist Church Cemetery.

Richard Ferguson, Class of 1858 (A.B.) and 1894 (A.M.)

Ferguson, a farmer in Nottoway County, enlisted as a private in the Nottoway Grays, Co.G of the 18th VA Infantry. He was promoted to lieutenant on December 8, 1861. He is listed as commanding the company in March 1862. Due to illness, he was dropped from the company on April 26, 1862, but continued to join his company even though he had not reenlisted.. He was wounded on June 30, 1862 during the Battle of Frayser's Farm (also known as the Battle of Glendale), part of the Seven Days Battles near Richmond, VA. He was promoted to adjutant on June 30, 1862 and to sergeant major on September 13, 1862.
 Ferguson was taken prisoner on July 3, 1863 following Pickett's Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg. He was imprisoned first at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD on July 7, and then on July 9 was sent on the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE. He was transferred on July 18, 1863 to the prison camp at Johnson's Island, OH, where he remained until he was sent to City Point at Hopewell, VA for exchange on February 24, 1865.

Ferguson farmed and taught in a school he opened for three years after the war. He became a minister in the VA Conference in 1869, having intended a career in the ministry prior to war but was prohibited from pursuing it due to illness. He received his A.M. degree from R-MC in 1894, the same year his son, Richard Ferguson Jr. also received an A.M. The father's degree is indicated as having been received "under the old law existing when his A.B. was taken." This meant that the recipient had graduated with honors and pursued a program of rigorous independent study for at least three years, demonstrating proficiency to the faculty. Ferguson retired from the ministry in 1918. He died January 1, 1930 in Tampa, FL and is buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA. Ferguson had written a wartime memoir in July 1928 that he requested be published posthumously in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where it appeared on May 25, 1930 as "Reminiscences of a Virginia Minister." In his memoir he tells the story of his captivity, including his failed escape from Johnson's Island.

George Henry Nicholas, student 1861-1862

Nicholas attended VMI for 4 weeks after Randolph-Macon closed in early 1862 for the duration of the war. He enlisted in Co. C of the 25th Battalion VA Infantry on August 15, 1862. On February 9, 1863, he was promoted to corporal and he was promoted to sergeant on April, 11, 1863. He was hospitalized in Scottsville, VA in March 1863 for an undisclosed reason, and was hospitalized at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, VA in September 1863 with "debility."

Nicholas returned to the Scottsville area of Buckingham County, VA after the war and farmed until his death on January 31, 1922.

William Wallace Duncan, preparatory department student until 1854

Duncan, son of Professor David Duncan who served at R-MC 1835-1854, was born at Randolph-Macon College and was educated in the preparatory department there prior to his father's appointment as professor at Wofford College. Duncan entered Wofford as a freshman in 1854 and graduated in 1958. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1859 and was assigned to Alexandria at the beginning of the war.  In 1863-1864, he served as chaplain, first to the 20th SC Infantry from February 1863 until his transfer in the fall of 1864 to the 13th SC Infantry, his brother David Robinson Duncan's regiment. He was hospitalized in Richmond in July 1864 with diarrhea and in September 1864 with "general debilitas following acute tonsilitis [sic]."

After the war, he continued as a minister in Virginia. He transferred to the South Carolina Conference in 1875, where from 1875-1885, he was a professor at Wofford College. In 1886, he was elected Bishop and served until his death March 2, 1908. He is buried in Spartanburg, SC in Oakwood Cemetery.

Reuben Jonathan Palmer, Class of 1851

Palmer moved to Montgomery, Texas in 1856 and practiced law. He was an ardent secessionist, and served in the state Secession Convention, signing the Texas Ordinance of Secession. He served in the Ninth Texas Legislature during the war, which met from 1861-1863.

After the war, he continued to practice law and was  a partner in a mercantile business, which he sold shortly before his death on March 20, 1868. Palmer is buried in the Old Methodist Churchyard in Montgomery County, TX.

Richard Holmes Powell, Class of 1843 (A.B.) and 1851 (A.M.)

Powell was a prominent planter in Union Springs, Alabama at the beginning of the war, having also served as mayor of the town and having helped establish a bank. He was commissoned as captain of Co. D of the 3rd AL Infantry, the Southern Rifles, on April 26, 1861. He was wounded on May 19, 1863 and was promoted to major on August 20, 1863.  Powell was wounded in the right leg on May 17, 1864 and hospitalized in Richmond, VA.  Although his records don't indicate where he was wounded, the 3rd Alabama was involved in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House at that time so it is nearly certain this was the battle in which he was wounded. It was initially believed that he would recover fully, but the wound did not heal for several months and after numerous medical furlough extensions, he was released for light duty. He was captured May 3, 1865 at Union Springs, AL where he was serving as a major in the Invalid Corps, having been retired from service February 2, 1865. He was paroled May 6, 1865 at Montgomery, AL.

After the war, Powell practiced law and became editor of the Union Springs Herald (Union Springs, AL) newspaper, for which he wrote a series of articles on the history of the 3rd Alabama Infantry  in 1866-1867. He also served a term in the state legislature from 1882-1883. He died October 17, 1884 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Union Springs, AL.

William Abram Darden, Jr., student 1852-1853

Darden left his studies at R-MC due to vision problems and became a farmer in Greene County, NC. He briefly joined the Greene County Rifles, Co. A of the 3rd NC Infantry but left when he was elected to North Carolina's Secession Convention. Darden then was commissioned as second lieutenant in Co. F of the 61st NC Infantry on April 4, 1862. He was promoted to captain on April 26, 1864. He was hospitalized in August 1864 with an undisclosed illness. Darden was taken prisoner at Fort Harrison, VA on September 30, 1864 and taken to Bermuda Hundred on October1. He was sent to Old Capitol Prison on October 6, 1864 and to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE on October 21, arriving on October 23, 1864.  A letter to a friend dated January 11, 1865 indicates that his health was poor and his rheumatism bothered him, and he complained of the cold. Darden remained imprisoned at Fort Delaware until he took the Oath of Allegiance on June 10, 1865.

After the war, Darden returned to farming in Greene County, NC. He served a term in the NC legislature and became active in Farmers' Alliance. He died on June 2, 1890 and is buried in Greene County, NC in an unnamed family cemetery near Tabernacle Methodist Church at Speights Bridge.

Charles William Uriah Young, Jr., student 1851-1852

Young, a farmer in Dinwiddie County, VA, enlisted in the 10th VA Heavy Infantry Battalion on an unknown date. He died at home of Camp Fever in 1862. He is buried at Darvills, Dinwiddie County, on the family farm. The farm now lies within the boundaries of the Five Forks Battlefield unit of the Petersburg National Battlefield.

Samuel Garland, Jr., student 1845-1846

Garland attended the Virginia Military Institute after leaving R-MC, graduating from VMI in 1849. He  graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in law in 1851.  Garland was a lawyer in Lynchburg, VA at the beginning of the war. In 1859, he organized the Lynchburg Home Guards, which became Co. G of the 11th VA Infantry in April, 1861. He was commissioned captain on April 23, 1861. On May 8, 1861, he was promoted to colonel and on May 23, 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general. Garland received his first wound at the Battle of Williamsburg, but remained in the battle. His horse was killed at the Battle of Seven Pines, VA on May 31, 1862. Garland was mortally wounded with a shot through the chest on September 14, 1862 in Wise's Field near Fox's Gap, MD during the Battle of South Mountain.He is buried in Lynchburg, VA in Presbyterian Cemetery.

Valentine Winfree, student 1835-1836

Winfree was a tobacconist in Richmond, VA at the beginning of the war. He served as a private on Co. I of the 1st Regiment VA State Infantry Reserves.

Winfree remained in Richmond, VA and became an auctioneer. He died December 10, 1886.

Charles Jones Winston, student 1857-1858

Winston, a farmer in Campbell County, VA in 1860, enlisted with his brother William Henry Harrison Winston as a private in Co. G of the 11th VA Infantry on May 26, 1861. He was absent due to illness from October 15 to November 15, 1861.  Winston was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg on June 3, 1863 as was his brother William, but Charles was not taken prisoner. He was wounded again on April 1, 1865 at the Battle of Five Forks in Dinwiddie County, VA.

Winston returned to farming in Campbell County, VA. He died March 16, 1889 and is buried in the Winston-Clark Family Cemetery in Altavista, Campbell County, VA.

William Henry Harrison Winston, student 1859-1860

Winston, a farmer in Campbell County, VA in 1860 and brother of Charles J. Winston, enlisted as a private in Co. G of the 11th VA Infantry on May 26, 1861. He was wounded during the Seven Days Battles near Richmond, VA sometime between May 26, and June 1, 1862. Although the records do not indicate the exact date, which battle, or the extent of his wound, his 1926 pension application indicates he was wounded in the shoulder. He was taken prisoner of war at the battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 and sent to the prison camp at Fort McHenry, MD and then on to Fort Delaware, DE on July 6, 1863.  He is quoted in a family letter as having been wounded during Pickett's Charge and left for four hours on the battlefield before his capture. On October 26, 1863, he was transferred to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD, where he remained until he was exchanged on February 13, 1865. Whether or not he rejoined his regiment is unclear, but a family letter indicates he took part in "the last battle at Petersburg," and on his 1926 pension application, he states that "after the surrender at Appomattox I made my way to Greensboro, N.C. On my arrival Gen. Johnson [Johnston] surrendered and I left the service."

After the war, he farmed in Amherst County, VA through at least 1910. By 1920, he was retired and living in Southampton County, VA. He died March 14, 1934 and is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, VA. His obituary in the Franklin, VA Tidewater News states that he was:

Always present at the dinners given here by Agnes Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, on June 3 of each year, he never failed to proclaim himself an "Unreconstructed Rebel," and say that he was "ready to fight again."

William Waugh Smith, Class of 1871 and R-MC President 1886-1897

Smith enlisted as a private in Co. C of the 49th VA Infantry on an unknown date. His father was editor of the Richmond Enquirer newspaper during the war and the son wrote for the paper periodically through the war. He was wounded in the finger at the battle of Seven Pines, VA. Smith was again wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg and left on the field, believed to be mortally wounded. His death was reported in his father's newspaper, the Enquirer. Smith was taken prisoner and hospitalized in Baltimore, MD. He was paroled on August 23, 1863 and transferred to City Point, VA for exchange the following day.

After the war, he attended the University of Virginia and then Randolph-Macon College, graduating in 1871. After teaching for several years at Bethel Academy in Fauquier County, VA, he became a professor at Randolph-Macon College in 1878 teaching first "moral and mental philosphy," then Greek, and then Latin. He became president of the College in 1886 serving until 1897, when he became chancellor of the Radnolph-Macon System, which included several preparatory academies and a woman's college in addition to R-MC. Smith died on November 29, 1912 and is buried in Richmond, VA in Hollywood Cemetery.

Samuel Granville Staples, student 1837-1838

After leaving Randolph-Macon, Staples attended the University of Virginia and then the College of William and Mary, where he received a law degree. He served in a number of public offices including deputy county clerk and member of the VA House of Delegates. He was a lawyer and large landholder who was listed as a farmer in the 1860 census in Patrick County, VA. He represented Patrick County at Virginia's secession convention, where he was an anti-secessionist delegate although he ultimately voted for secession. Staples served only briefly in a military capacity as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General J.E.B. Stuart from approximately April to July 1862, when he was injured in a fall from his horse. Staples' military records are incomplete and unclear as to his specific dates of service and rank, and his letter requesting a presidential pardon states that he was assigned to the staff of J.E.B. Stuart "without any rank." He apparently returned to his estate in Patrick County and farmed for the remainder of the war.  Staples took the oath of allegiance on August 1, 1865.

After the war, he remained in Patrick County, where he farmed and became a judge. Staples died August 6, 1895 and is buried in Fair View Cemetery in Roanoke, VA.

Ethelbert James Hudson, Jr., student 1855-1856

Hudson, a druggist in Richmond, VA in 1860 and brother of Edward Macon Hudson, enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 1st VA Light Artillery on May 3, 1861. He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and  was commissioned into Co. G of the 5th VA Cavalry on April 1, 1862. He was captured after the Battle of Gettysburg on July 4, 1863 and sent to Fort McHenry in Baltimore and then to Fort Delaware, DE, from which he was exchanged on July 30, 1863. By the time that he was paroled on April 14, 1865 in Burkeville, VA, Hudson had been promoted to captain.

Hudson committed suicide on September 1, 1869 in Baltimore, MD.

Benjamin Lyons Farinholt, student 1855-1856

Farinhold enlisted  as 2nd lieutenant in Co. E of the 53rd VA Infantry on July 8, 1861. On April 22, 1862, he left the company on advice of the surgeon due to an unknown illness, returning in May. He was injured on June 25, 1862 by a falling tree limb, fracturing several ribs In the early fall of 1862, he was absent for some weeks due to illness, and was then detailed to enroll conscripts in New Kent County, VA. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on September 30, 1862 and to captain on March 5, 1863. Farinholt was taken prisoner on July 3, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg and sent first to the prison at Fort McHenry, MD, then transferred to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE, and finally sent on July 18, 1863 to the prison camp at Johnson's Island, OH, arriving there on July 20, 1863. He escaped from the prison camp on February 22, 1864, making his way back to Virginia, and had rejoined the army by May 1864.  He was dispatched with 296 reservists to defend a bridge over the Staunton River. Farinholt is best known for leading a small group of 938 men and boys, mostly his reservists and local residents with only 150 regular troops,  in the Battle of Staunton River Bridge on June 25, 1864, holding off an attack of over 5000 Union soldiers until Confederate forces could arrive. The successful defense of this bridge ensured the safety of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, an important supply line for the defense of Petersburg and Richmond. This battle has been called the "battle of old men and young boys." Farinholt was promoted to lieutenant colonel of reserve forces on July 18, 1864 and to colonel on August 12, 1864, in command of the 1st Regiment VA Reserves.

In 1870, he was a dry goods and grocery merchant in Essex County VA and in 1880 he is listed as a "country merchant." By 1900, he was a glass merchant in Baltimore, MD. He had relocated to West Point, Virginia and was an insurance agent. in 1910. Farinholt died December 24, 1919 and is buried in Sunny Slope Cemetery in West Point, King William County, VA.

John Kelly Abbott, student 1852-53, 1855-56

Abbott, a teacher in Camden County, NC in the 1860 census, enlisted as a private in Co. L of the 17th NC Infantry on July 28, 1861. He spent some time on detached duty with the engineers, probably due to his training as a surveyor. He was taken prisoner on February 8, 1862 at Roanoke Island, NC and paroled on February 21, 1862 in Elizabeth City, NC. He is listed on a muster roll as absent "within the enemy lines" in May 1862.  By March 1863, he was serving as color corporal in Co. A of the 8th NC Infantry, having been transferred when his previous company was disbanded. He spent much of his time detailed as commissary sergeant. He was paroled at Greensboro, NC on May 1, 1865.

Abbott returned to Camden County and became a farmer. He served in the 1870s and 1880s as county surveyor, and served a number of terms in the NC state legislature. He died September 14, 1906.

David Clopton, Class of 1840 (A.B.) and 1851 (A.M.)

Clopton, who practiced law in Georgia and then Alabama after graduating from R-MC, was in the U.S House of Representatives in 1861 at the outbreak of the war.  A strong supporter of States' Rights, Clopton  resigned his seat in Congress and joined the 12th AL Infantry. He was appointed quartermaster for the regiment on July 17, 1861. He resigned November 18, 1861 after his election to the Confederate Congress,  where he served from 1862-1864. On July 18, 1865, he took the oath of allegiance and later received his presidential pardon.

After the war, he returned to law and politics in Alabama, serving in the Alabama legislature in 1878.  In 1884, he became a judge in Alabama's Supreme Court, a position he held until his death on February 5, 1892. Clopton is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, AL.

William Bernard Harrell, student 1839-1840

Harrell's unpublished autobiographical notes place him and his brother James at R-MC in January,1839 although the dates in the college records, 1834-1835, don't coincide. The earlier dates in the College's records may indicate attendance in one of the preparatory schools and the lack of signatures in the matriculation book may be due to the timing when the brothers arrived at the College. The Harrell brothers were dismissed from the College when they were caught with several others attending a circus in Clarksville, VA. After his time at R-MC, Harrell became a doctor, receiving his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1849. He was practicing medicine in North Carolina at the war's beginning, with his occupation in the 1860 census listed as instructor in Chapel Hill, NC, where he was probably teaching medicine. He served as Assistant Surgeon at the Camp of Instruction in Dublin, VA in 1863 and 1864. He was Assistant Surgeon for the Examining Board of the 11th Congressional district when he took the oath of allegiance on May 1, 1865 in NC.  In addition to his medical service, Harrell wrote the patriotic song "Ho! For Carolina!" in 1861, supposedly inspired by crowds cheering trains of soldiers leaving for war. He also wrote a ballad in 1863 dedicated to the 4th NC Infantry entitled "Up With the Flag." 

Harrell returned to NC after the war and was practicing medicine in Durham, NC in 1880. Sometime after the war, he had also become a Baptist minister. Harrell died in Dunn, NC on November 22, 1906.

Sterling Peebles Thrower, student 1848-1849

Thrower, who attended the University of Virginia after leaving R-MC and was the brother of Christopher Thrower of the class of 1859, was conscripted into the army but recommended for light duty by the Board of Surgeons. He requested to be assigned to the Auditors section of the Confederate Treasury Department in 1864, with a letter of support dated in August. His inquiry concerning the request dated October 6, 1864 includes an indication the request was approved dated on October 11, 1864. It is unknown how long he served in the Treasury Department.

Thrower was a lawyer in Boydton in Mecklenburg County, VA in 1860, and he returned to practicing law Thrower died September 12, 1882 and is buried in Boydton, VA in St. James Episcopal Church Cemetery.

Tennent Lomax, Class of 1840 (A.B.) and 1851 (A.M.)

Lomax, a veteran of the Mexican-American War, was an extremely wealthy planter and lawyer in Alabama when he was commissioned on April 28, 1861 as lieutenant colonel of the 3rd AL Infantry.  He was promoted to colonel on July 10, 1861.  He was killed on May 31, 1862 at the Battle of Seven Pines, VA shortly after receiving the news of his promotion to brigadier general. Lomax is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, AL.

Bennett W. Bagby, student 1856-1861

Bagby, a schoolteacher like his older brother Jesse P. Bagby, enlisted on May 28, 1861 as a private in Co. D of the 20th VA Infantry, the Powhatan Rifles. He was taken prisoner at Rich Mountain, WV on July 11, 1861 and paroled on July 17, 1861. Bagby was discharged by order of the Adjutant-General for an undisclosed reason on September 21, 1861. On June 22, 1863, Bagby enlisted as a private in Co. C of the 2nd LA Cavalry. He surrendered in Washington, GA on May 29, 1865.

After the war, he was teaching school in Appomattox County, VA in 1880.

Jesse P. Bagby, Class of 1854 (A.B.) and 1857 (A.M.)

Bagby was a teacher when he enlisted as a private in Co. G of the 38th VA Infantry on May 19, 1861. He was discharged for disability due to bronchitis on October 2, 1861.

Charles Edward Hooker, student 1841-1842

Hooker attended Harvard University after leaving R-MC and graduated from Harvard in 1846. he moved to Mississippi, where he became a prominent lawyer in Jackson, MS. He served as district attorney prior to his election to the MS House of Representatives, from which he resigned to join the military. He was commissioned 1st lieutenant in Co. A of the 1st MS Light Artillery on October 1, 1861. Hooker was wounded at Vicksburg, MS, losing use of his left arm, and was captured there on July 4, 1863. He was paroled on July 7, 1863. He was promoted to colonel of cavalry in September 1863, serving in the military court in General Pemberton's Corps. He was paroled at Meridian, MS on May 10, 1865.

Hooker returned to Jackson, MS, where he practiced law, He was elected to numerous terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1875-1883, 1887-1895, and 1901-1902. He died January 8, 1914 and is buried in Jackson, MS in Greenwood Cemetery.

William Augustus Trotter, student 1850-1851

Trotter, a farmer in Greensville County and brother of Isham Edward Trotter, was excused from regular service with an agriculturalist exemption.  He enlisted in Co. A of the Greensville Home Guard, Captain Scott's Company of the Virginia Local Defense, in July 1863.

He continued farming in Greensville County, VA after the war. Trotter died on June 21, 1912 and is buried in Mount Pleasant Methodist Church Cemetery in Greensville, County, VA

Isham Edward Trotter, student 1853-1854

Trotter, a farmer in Brunswick County, VA and brother of William Augustus Trotter, enlisted as a private in Co. E of the 56th VA Infantry on July 10, 1861. he was taken prisoner on February 16, 1862 at the Battle of Fort Donelson, TN and sent to the prison camp at Camp Morton, IN in March 1862. He was exchanged at Vicksburg, MS on August 24, 1862. Trotter returned to Virginia, rejoined his regiment, and was promoted to corporal on an unknown date prior to being captured again on July 3, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he had been wounded. He was sent first to the prison at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD and then sent on to the prison at Fort Delaware, DE on July 12, 1863.  He was transferred to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD on October 27, 1863, where he remained until he was paroled and exchanged on May 3, 1864. He again rejoined his company, was promoted to sergeant, and was taken prisoner a third time at Burkesville, VA on April 6, 1865. He was once again sent to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD, where he was released on June 20, 1865 after taking the oath of allegiance.

After the war, he returned to farming in Brunswick County, VA. He was admitted to the Lee Camp Soldier's Home in Richmond, VA on July 9, 1922, where he died on November 18, 1923. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Brunswick County, VA.

Ashley L. Davis, student 1848-1849

Davis, a farmer in Lunenburg County, VA in 1860, enlisted with his younger brother, Nicholas Edmunds Davis, Jr., on June 7, 1861 as a private in G of the 9th VA Cavalry. A Lunenburg County history indicates Davis was wounded at Fredericksburg, VA on an unknown date. Davis does not appear on company rolls after Feb. 1862 and it is unknown when he left the company.

He was a farmer in Pittsylvania County in 1870 and by 1880 was a tobacco dealer in Danville, VA. He died April 7, 1903 and is buried in Mathews County, VA in Christ Church Kingston Parish Cemetery.

Nicholas Edmunds Davis, Jr., student 1858-1859

Davis, younger brother of Ashley L. Davis, enlisted as a private with his brother in Co. G of the 9th VA Cavalry on June 7, 1861. He was promoted to sergeant on January 31, 1862, to 2nd lieutenant on December 19, 1862, and to 1st lieutenant on January 17, 1863. He was killed October 17, 1863 at Manassas, VA during cavalry action there.

Oliver P. Bendall, student 1853-1854

Bendall attended the University of Virginia after leaving R-MC. He was a schoolteacher in Sussex County, VA in 1860, when he enlisted as a corporal in Co. E of the 16th VA Infantry on April 27, 1861. He transferred as a private to Co. G of the 5th VA Cavalry on September 14, 1861 after providing a substitute to the 16th VA Infantry. This cavalry company later became Co. A of the 13th VA Cavalry. Bendall surrendered on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA.

After the war, he was a grocer in Dinwiddie County, VA in 1870. By 1881, he was a partner in Bendall Brothers, a leaf tobacco firm in Danville, VA, and he remained in the tobacco business until at least the mid-1890s. In the 1900 census, he was a farmer in Pittsylvania County, VA. He died July 4, 1904 and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Danville, VA.

John R. Billups, student 1839-1840

Billups was a farmer in Russell County, AL at the outbreak of the war. He joined Co. E of the 39th AL Infantry as a private on September 1, 1863. He was discharged on December 17, 1863.

After the war, Billups returned to farming in Russell County, AL. He died January 13, 1883.

Thomas Booth Gilliam, student 1846-1847

Gilliam, a lumber merchant in 1860 in North Carolina, was conscripted as a private at the age of 44 into Co. C of the 3rd NC Light Artillery, also known as the 40th Regiment North Carolina Troops, on March 5, 1864. He transferred from Co. C to Co. H on July 16, 1864.

After the war, he was a confectioner in the 1870 census and a merchant in the 1880 census in Wilson County, NC. He died on August 20, 1904 and is buried in Wilson County's Maplewood Cemetery.

Robert Caldwell Gillam, Class of 1841

Gillam was a prominent farmer in Abbeville County, SC prior to the war. He had served as road commissioner and the postmaster at Lodi. Gillam first enlisted as a private in the Co. B of the 5th SC Reserves Infantry, a 90 day company, in November 1862, but does not appear to have ever reported for duty. He enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 1st Regiment SC State Troops on August 1, 1863. He was hospitalized shortly after and then furloughed through January 1864.

After the war he continued to farm. Gillam died on September 18, 1897 and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Greenwood, SC.

Henry Joyner, student 1839-1840

Joyner is listed in the 1843-1844 catalog of the University of Pennsylvania as a medical student, and was a physician in Halifax County, NC at the start of the war. He enlisted as surgeon of the 30th NC Infantry on October 1, 1861. He resigned his commission on May 1, 1862. Joyner represented Halifax County in the North Carolina legislature during the remainder of the war, having been elected in 1862 and 1864. He took the oath of allegiance on June 29, 1865 in Raleigh, NC and applied for a presidential pardon, in which he claims he opposed secession.

Joyner served as a Councillor of State in 1866. He died between 1867 and 1870, and is buried in Poplar Grove Cemetery in Roanoke Rapids, Halifax County, NC.

John Garland Ayres, student 1859-1861

Ayres joined Captain Anderson's Company of the VA Light Artillery, the Richmond Howitzers, sometime prior to December 1863. He was transferred to the 14th VA Infantry in October 1864, but no further records for him have been found.

Ayres moved to California before 1871, when he appears on voter registration rolls, and was a stockbroker in Oakland, CA in the 1880 census. He is listed in San Francisco city directories through 1882. He is believed to have died about 1884 and to be buried in the San Francisco, CA area.

Claudius G. Phillips, Class of 1858

Phillips, a teacher in Nansemond County, VA in the 1860 census, enlisted as a private on May 18, 1861 in Co. F of the 9th VA Infantry, the Chuckatuck Light Artillery. He was hospitalized with typhoid fever at Chimborazo in Richmond, VA on May 31, 1862. He was detailed for hospital duty first as a clerk and later as a nurse. He was back with his company by April 1, 1864. His fate after 1864 is unknown at present.

Hunter B. Phillips, student 1859-1861

Phillips enlisted in Co. B of the 8th VA Infantry on June 13, 1861 as a private. He was hospitalized at Chimborazo in Richmond, VA with dysentery in April 1862 and transferred to the hospital at Richmond's  Camp Lee in May. He returned to duty in December 1862. He was detailed to the Quartermaster Department in Richmond on February 28, 1863, where he remained until discharged.He was discharged due to physical disability in October 1863, suffering from tuberculosis. Phillips died on January 15, 1864.

Robert Thomas Priddy, student 1862-1863

Priddy enlisted in the Staunton Hill Artillery, also known as Capt. Paris' Co. of VA Artillery or the VA Charlotte Light Artillery, as a private on November 27, 1863. His handwritten and signed oath of allegiance is dated April 23, 1865.

After the war, Priddy returned to Charlotte County, VA.  He is listed as a country merchant in the 1870 census, a dry goods merchant in 1880, and a farmer in 1900. Priddy died on December 20, 1931 and is buried in Merry Oaks Cemetery, the Priddy family cemetery located at the location of the former family home, at Keysville, VA.

Francis A. Prichard, student 1860-1861

Prichard enlisted as a sergeant in Co. A of the 20th VA Cavalry on December 25, 1862. He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on September 14, 1863. Prichard was wounded at the Third Battle of Winchester (VA) on September 19, 1864, taken prisoner and sent to the Union Army's Depot Field Hospital, where he died the same day.

Joseph Richard Manson, student 1846-1849

Manson, a farmer in Greensville County, VA in 1860, enlisted as 2nd lieutenant in Co. I of the 12th VA Infantry on February 22, 1862. On September 14, 1862, he was taken prisoner at Crampton's Gap. MD, part of the Battle of South Mountain, and sent to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE. He was exchanged at Aiken's landing, VA on October 6, 1862. He was promoted to captain on July 15, 1864. Manson surrendered at Appomattox Court House, VA on April 9, 1865. He took the oath of allegiance in Richmond, VA on May 30, 1865 and was paroled.

After the war, Manson returned to farming in Greensville County, VA. He later moved to Brunswick County, VA, where in addition to farming he served as a public school trustee and Sunday school superintendent. Manson died in April, 1918 and is buried in the Manson family cemetery in Brunswick County, VA.

Richard Irby, Class of 1844

Irby was a farmer and ran a foundry making farming implements in Nottoway County, VA when he was commissioned as first lieutenant on April 22, 1861 in Co. G of the 18th VA Infantry, the Nottoway Grays. He resigned his commission in November 1861 when he was elected to the Virginia legislature as a representative in the House of Delegates. He resigned his elected office in the spring of 1862 and reenlisted.  He was promoted to captain on March 29, 1862, taking command of the company on April 23, 1862. He was wounded in the neck and breast on August 30, 1862 at the Battle of Second Manassas. He was hospitalized on September 4, 1862 in Farmville, VA, where his wound is recorded as a gunshot wound in the shoulder, and then sent to Lynchburg, VA. He was placed on detached service in January 1863, and resigned from his company on June 26, 1863 and was transferred to the commissary department retaining his rank as captain. He was captured at Blacks and Whites, now Blackstone, VA on April 19, 1865.  He took the oath of allegiance on July 17, 1865 at Nottoway Court House, VA.


After the war, he resumed farming in Nottoway County, VA. He became president of Petersburg Iron Works in 1867, and became a partner in  a Richmond stove manufacturing business in 1868.  Irby later moved to Ashland and was R-MC's Secretary and Treasurer from 1886 until 1902, resigning shortly before his death. He also served as a trustee of the college for 50 years. He was the author of the first history of R-MC in the late 1890s and the college has him to thank for collecting and preserving many of its old records, and for his extensive correspondence with alumni. Irby's History of  Randolph-Macon College, Virginia (available online) only briefly touches upon the war and its effect upon the college. The Captain, as he was known to the Randolph-Macon College community for the rest of his life, published a regimental history in 1878, Historical Sketch of the Nottoway Grays: Afterwards Company G, Eighteenth Virginia Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia (available online), which is in the College Archives. The college's copy is inscribed to “His old friend and fellow Pilgrim,” Leroy S. Edwards. The Captain died on July 4, 1902 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Blackstone, Nottoway County, VA.

William Addison Branch, student 1861-1863

Branch, son of long-time R-MC trustee Thomas Branch and brother of Thomas Plummer Branch and James Read Branch, enlisted as a private on September 1, 1863 in his brother James' company, the VA Branch Light Artillery, later to become Pegram's Co. VA Light Artillery. He was detailed as Acting Adjutant from Fall 1863 until Summer 1864, while his older brother James still commanded the company. He is listed on a roll of prisoners in Richmond, VA on April 17, 1865. Branch took the Oath of Allegiance in Richmond, VA on May 24, 1865.

Shortly after the war's end, he emigrated to California and became a rancher. Branch died November 16, 1880 in Modesto, CA and is buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA.

Thomas Plummer Branch, student 1854-1855

Branch, son of long-time R-MC trustee Thomas Branch and brother of James Read Branch and William Addison Branch, attended the University of Virginia for a year after leaving R-MC. He was working in the banking firm of Thomas Branch and Sons in Petersburg, VA at the start of the war. Branch enlisted in Co. D of the 5th VA Cavalry on May 27, 1861. He was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in his older brother James Read Branch's artillery unit sometime before July 1, 1862, and served much of his time on detached service as an enrolling officer in Petersburg, VA. He was promoted to major and became Acting Assistant Adjutant General to General Robert Ransom on June 16, 1863. He was captured May 16, 1864 at Drewry's Bluff, VA and sent via Fort Monroe to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD on May 18, 1864. On June 23, 1864 he was sent to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE. He was transferred to Hilton Head, SC and on to Morris Island, SC and became one of the group of imprisoned officers known as the "Immortal Six Hundred," of whom only 300 would survive the war. Branch, one of the 300 survivors of the 600, was exchanged on December 3, 1864 at Fort Pulaski, GA. He returned to service on General Rosser's staff and surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

After the war, he moved to Augusta, Georgia where he was involved in cotton, banking and railroads. Branch died on May 14, 1900 and is buried in Augusta's Magnolia Cemetery

James Read Branch, Class of 1848

Branch, son of long-time R-MC trustee Thomas Branch and brother of Thomas Plummer Branch and William Addison Branch, enlisted as a captain on May 11, 1861 in the Lee Life Guard of the 4th Battalion VA Infantry, also known as Captain James R. Branch's Company of the 12th VA Infantry. On July 1, 1861 this company became Co. K of the 16th VA Infantry. Branch transferred as captain with his company to the VA Light Artillery at his request on March 18, 1862. He was promoted to Major on May 14, 1863 and to Lieutenant Colonel on August 25, 1863. In March of 1865, he was retired from duty and was assigned to the Invalid Corps, not having been with his command since April 1864 due to an injury (leg broken in three places) sustained in Plymouth, NC. On March 31, 1865, he was assigned to the Ordnance Department in Richmond. This order was revoked the following day on the eve of the evacuation and fall of the city.  He was paroled at Greensboro, NC on May 1, 1865.

Prior to the war, Branch had been a teacher in Lunenburg County and then a banker and merchant in Petersburg, VA with a family firm, Thomas Branch and Sons. After the war, he was in banking in Thomas Branch and Sons in Richmond, VA. He was killed in a suspension bridge collapse on the James River on July 2, 1869. He is buried in Richmond, VA in Hollywood Cemetery.

Benjamin James Hawthorne, student 1858-1861

Hawthorne enlisted as 2nd lieutenant in Co. G of the 38th VA Infantry on December 11, 1861. He was wounded in the left arm in the Battle of Gettysburg during Pickett's Charge. He was promoted to captain on November 15, 1863, although he had previously served as captain from March-June 1863 int he absence of his captain. He was detailed from late November 1864 to early January 1865 as an enrolling officer. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Afte the war, he moved to Baton Rouge, LA and taught at Collegiate Institute. He went to West Tennessee College in 1869 and served as its president in 1872. In 1873, Hawthorne moved to Corvallis, OR to teach at Corvallis College at the request of the college's president, Benjamin Lee Arnold, also an R-MC alumnus and veteran of the 38th VA Infantry. Corvallis College later became Oregon State University. Hawthorne moved to the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR in 1884, where he founded the psychology department. During his years as a college professor he taught numerous subjects including Latin and Greek, agriculture, English literature, psychology, mathematics, and chemistry. He retired from the university in 1908 and became a lawyer, passing the bar in 1911 and practicing nearly until his death at age 90. He died on February 3, 1928 and is buried in Masonic Cemetery in Eugene, OR.

Gideon Hunt Macon, student early 1850s

Macon, whose grandfather was the younger brother of Nathaniel Macon, after whom the college was named, attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania after leaving R-MC, graduating in 1854. He practiced medicine first in Warren County, NC and then in Halifax County, NC, where he was residing at the outbreak of the war. In 1861, he served as assistant surgeon for the 14th NC Infantry.  He assisted in the organization and outfitting of Co. A of this regiment, the Roanoke Minute Men, and signed documents as Lieutenant, Commissary, and Quartermaster of the company. Later biographies indicate he was surgeon for the 1st NC Regulars from February 2, 1862 through 1864, although on May 3, 1862 he requested to be exempted from service due to the need form his medical services at home in Halifax County.  By 1864, he also was serving as Justice of the Peace for Halifax County, NC.

Thomas Amis, Jr., student 1857-1858

Amis (variantly spelled Amiss), from Ouachita, AR enlisted as a private in Co. G of the 3rd AR Cavalry. No further information on him or his family, who had lived in Kentucky in 1850 and Arkansas in 1860, has yet been found.

Waddy Street, student 1838-1839

Street, a farmer in Lunenburg County, VA, enlisted as a private in Co. G of the 9th VA Cavalry on June 9, 1861. He was discharged for disability on June 26, 1861 in Ashland, VA, the postwar home of R-MC. According to his widow's pension application, he had contracted a fever which settled into one leg and disabled him for life.  The surgeon examining him in 1861 at the training camp in Ashland, however, indicates obesity as the cause, stating that "he is so corpulent as to find great difficulty in mounting and dismounting his horse."

After the war, Street returned to farming in Lunenburg County, VA. Street was a teacher in Lunenburg County, VA in the 1880 census. He died May 8, 1895 and is buried in Richmond, VA in Hollywood Cemetery.

Francis Duval Koonce, student 1854-1855

Koonce, who attended the University of North Carolina and studied law after leaving R-MC, was commissioned captain in "Koonce's State Guerrillas," which became Co. K of the 61st NC Infantry, on April 29, 1862. He was absent without leave through the fall of 1862 due to illness, and resigned on February 3, 1863.There is some indication that Koonce was a mail contractor for the CSA later in the war.

He practiced law in Onslow County, NC after the war. Koonce ran unsuccesfully for Congress in the 1880s. He died on April 10, 1911 and is buried in the Koonce Cemetery at Richlands in Onslow County, NC.

Giles Harris, Jr., student 1860-1863

Harris enlisted in the Lunenburg (VA) Light Artillery as a private in January 25, 1863. On January 28, 1865, he transferred to Co. E of the 3rd VA Cavalry.

Harris moved to Kentucky after the war where he initially farmed. In 1880, he was attending medical school in Louisville, KY. He graduated from the Transylvania University Medical Department in 1880 and practiced in Madison County, KY. He died August 10, 1913 and is buried in Richmond Cemetery in Richmond, KY.

Erasmus Kennon Harris, student 1852-1853

Harris attended the University of Virginia after leaving R-MC and was practicing law in Clarksville, VA at the beginning of the war. He enlisted as a private in Co. E of the 14th VA Infantry on May 12, 1861. He was hospitalized in Williamsburg, VA in December 1861 and was discharged for disability on February 13, 1861.  He was commissioned 2nd lieutenant of Co. I , 38th VA Infantry on April 29, 1862, a company he had joined in March 1862. He resigned from this company on June 28, 1862 due to ill health resulting from chronic diarrhea. He applied for a position with the CSA Treasury Department.

After the war, he returned to Mecklenburg County, VA and practiced law. He is believed to have died around 1875.

Fleming J. Hancock, student 1850-1851

Hancock was a physician in Spotsylvania County, VA at the beginning of the war. he enlisted as a surgoon on an unknown date, however, on November 28, 1861, he was"relieved from duty at the Main street Hospital and is assigned to the Ambulance train for the transportation of the sick from Manassas to this city," this city being Richmond, VA. On August 19,1862, serving, he was appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon at General Hospital Camp Winder in Richmond, VA.

After the war, he continued to practice medicien in Spotsylvania County, VA. He died July 8, 1898 and is buried in Hardyville, Middlesex County, VA in the cemetery at Clarksbury United Methodist Church.

Leonidas O. Rives, Class of 1854 (A.B.) and 1857 (A.M.)

Rives, a lawyer in Memphis, TN, enlisted as a sergeant in Co. A of the 4th TN Infantry on May 15, 1861. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Perryville, KY on October 8, 1862 and taken prisoner, and was absent through at least May 1864. He surrendered on May 4, 1865 at Citronelle, AL and was paroled at Grenada, MS on May 18, 1865.

Rives returned to practicing law in Memphis, TN after the war, where he is listed in city directories until 1874. His date of death is unknown, although John Hallum's 1895 book The Diary of an Old Lawyer states "he abandoned his profession and removed to his farm near Mason's depot, where he led the life of a morose recluse, ending it in suicide."

Richmond E. LLoyd, student 1859-1861

Lloyd enlisted as a private in the Wilmington Light Infantry, which became Co. G of the 18th NC Infantry, on August 2, 1861. He was received a serious wound at Fredericksburg, VA on December 13, 1862 and was hospitalized in Richmond before being furloughed in February 1863 to recover at home in North Carolina. He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on January 1, 1863. He was still absent from his company through the summer of 1863 and does not appear to have returned before being discharged for disability on February 1, 1864.

Lloyd was a farmer in North Carolina after the war. He died on May 29, 1913 and is buried in Bladen County, NC in the cemetery at Carvers Creek United Methodist Church.

James Edward Leary, student 1857-1860

Leary enlisted on April 1, 1862 as a corporal in Co. G of the 32nd NC Infantry. His rank was reduced to private on July 15, 1862. He transferred to Co. F of the 4th NC Cavalry on January 9, 1863. He was ordnance sergeant from February 28, 1863 through August 31, 1863.

He is listed as a lawyer in a 1906 directory of the fraternity directory Delta Psi.

William Covington Wall, student 1856-1857

Wall attended the University of Virginia after leaving R-MC. He enlisted in Co. D of the 23 NC Infantry on May 30, 1861. He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on November 7, 1861.  When he was defeated for reelection as lieutenant on May 10, 1862, and was discharged from the company. He enlisted in Co. C of the 59th NC Infantry on July 7, 1862.  He was appointed 2nd lieutenant of Co. F of the 23rd NC Infantry on May 22, 1863. In March and April 1864, he was serving extra duty as Assistant Surgeon. Wall was promoted to 1st lieutenant on May 6, 1864 and to captain on May 10, 1864. Wall surrendered and was paroled April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA.

After the war, Wall completed medical school at Pennsylvania Medical College and then moved to DeSoto County, MS in 1867 where he practiced medicine and farmed. He died on July 2, 1910 and is buried in Hernando Memorial Park, in Hernando, DeSoto County, MS.

Jesse Powell HiIliard, student 1861-1862

Hilliard enlisted in Co. G of the 47th NC Infantry on May 20, 1862. He furnished a substitute and was discharged on or before August 1, 1862.

After the war, he farmed in Washington County, NC, where he was a county commissioner in 1890 and a Justice of the Peace in 1901. Hilliard died on June 1, 1902 and is buried in Plymouth, Washington County, NC in Garrett's Island Cemetery.

Richard Walker Griswold, student 1844-1845

Griswold was a farmer in Dinwiddie County, Va when he enlisted as a private on May 29, 1861 in Co. I of the 3rd VA Cavalry. He was hospitalized in Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Va in May 1862 for diarrhea. He was discharged September 9, 1862 to serve as a Justice of the Peace.

After the war, he returned to Dinwiddie County, VA and farmed. He is listed as a farmer and merchant in the 1880 census. He died in 1888 and is buried in the Abernathey Cemetery in Dinwiddie County, VA.

James Drury Proctor, Class of 1853 (A.B.) and 1856 (A.M.)

Proctor enlisted in Co. F of the 5th VA Cavalry, the Prince George Cavalry, on April 20, 1861 as a private. This later became Co. F of the 13th VA Cavalry. He was hospitalized at Episcopal Church Hospital in Williamsburg, Va on March 27, 1864 with chronic diarrhea. He is listed on the register of the South Carolina Hospital in Petersburg, VA dated April 1, 1864 as "At C Proctors on Washington St." Proctor returned to his company on August 1, 1864. The November-December 1864 company roll lists him as "Detailed as clerk for Court Martial."

After the war, he returned to Prince George County and farmed and worked in the railroad industry. In 1900, he was postmaster. Proctor died on August 3, 1900 and is buried in Petersburg, VA in Blandford Cemetery.

Robert L. Ragland, student 1846-1847

Ragland, a farmer in Halifax County, VA before the war, enlisted March 8, 1862 as 1st lieutenant of Captain Wright's Company (Co. C) of De Gournay's Battalion Heavy Artillery, the Halifax (VA) Artillery.  He resigned in June 1862 to join the quartermaster's department.

After the war, he returned to farming in Halifax County, VA. Ragland died on March 13, 1893 and is buried in Shady Grove Cemetery in Halifax County, VA.

Joseph W. Paup, student 1855-1856

Paup, a farmer in Hempstead County, AR in 1860, was commissioned as lieutenant in Co. B of the 4th AR Infantry on August 17, 1861. He resigned on September 16, 1861. In February 1863, he is listed as Adjutant and Inspector General to General James Fleming Fagan, commander of the 2nd Brigade, Hindman's Division. In July 1863, he is listed as Acting Brigade Inspector on the staff of General Fagan.

After the war, Paup was a merchant in Hempstead County, AR in the 1870 census. He died on January16, 1876.

Emmett Arrington Drewry, student 1855-1856

Drewry attended the Medical College of Virginia after leaving R-MC and graduated in 1860 from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was practicing medicine in Southampton County, VA when he enlisted as a private in Co. B of the 9th VA Infantry on September 20, 1861. He was commissioned 2nd lieutenant on May 8, 1862. From August -December 1862 he was enrolling conscripts, and was commanding the company in April 1863.  He resigned on August 25, 1863. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in February 1864 with the rank to date back to August 4, 1863. He had been required to report for hospital duty on August 10, 1863, and starting on August 11, 1863, he served first in the Poplar Lawn hospital and then in the South Carolina hospital, both in Petersburg, VA. On October 11, 1864, he was relieved from duty in Petersburg, VA and sent to North Carolina, where he worked in hospitals in Salisbury, Greensboro, and Raleigh. He was captured while on duty at the hospital in Raleigh, NC on April 13, 1865 and paroled on May 11, 1865.

Drewry returned to Southampton County, VA and practiced medicine after the war. He died July 8, 1891 and is buried in the Drewry Family cemetery in Drewryville, in Southampton County, VA.

Benjamin C. Hartsook, student 1860-1861

Hartsook enlisted in Co. D of the 19th VA Infantry as a private on April 19, 1861. He was hospitalized for "debility" at Chimborazo in Richmond, VA from April 13- April 29, 1862. He furnished a substitute, Daniel Bonham, on August 7, 1862 and was discharged. The substitute died of disease at Chimborazo in 1863.

After the war, Hartsook went into the insurance business in Richmond, VA. He died on July 30, 1898 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

Clifton A. Hamner, student 1859-1861

Hamner enlisted in the Charlotte (VA) Light Artillery on September 23, 1861. He was promoted to sergeant on April 1, 1862, to 2nd lieutenant on May 23, 1862 and to 1st lieutenant on December 31, 1864. He was paroled at Greensboro, NC on April 29, 1865.

After the war, he remained in North Carolina, where he was a salesman in High Point in 1880 and 1900. He is listed in the 1911 city directory in Asheville, NC as a traveling salesamn. He died on November 10, 1916 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Iredell County, NC.

James M. Fitts, student 1862-1863

James Monroe Fitts. Jr. enlisted at the age of 16 in Co. F of the 12th Virginia Infantry as a private on April 18, 1861. He was discharged for being underage on May 17, 1862. He was then sent in 1862 to R-MC, his father James M. Fitt's alma mater (A.B. 1838, A.M. 1841). The college closed in February 1863 for the duration of the war, and on February 20, 1863, Fitts enlisted in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry (the Boydton Cavalry) as a private. He is listed as AWOL in the summer of 1863 but his horse had been killed in action near Aldie, VA in June 1863, so he was likely procuring another mount. He had returned by September 1863. Fitts lost another horse in October, 1863 in battle at Raccoon's Ford, VA. He was hospitalized in Charlottesville, VA in December 1864 with impetigo, was in a hospital in Richmond in February, and listed as deserted on March 16, 1865.

He was a farmer in Mecklenburg County, VA in 1870. By 1880, he had returned to Warren County, NC where he was still farming. He died January 24, 1910 and is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Warrenton, NC.

James Waddy Davis, student 1861-1862

Davis attended the Medical College of Virginia after leaving R-MC, graduating in the spring 1864. On August 9, 1864, he was joined as Acting Assistant Surgeon. He was assigned to prison hospitals in Richmond, including the prison hospital at Belle Isle in Richmond, VA. In October, he was attached to the 46th VA Infantry On November 13, 1864, he was sent to the General Receiving Hospital in Gordonsville, VA for duty, where he remained until December 18, 1864. He was captured near Amelia Court House, VA on April 3, 1865 and sent to City Point, VA and then to Newport News, VA in late April. On April 28, 1865 he was sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., from which he was released on May 9, 1865 after taking the oath of allegiance.

After the war, he practiced medicine in Hanover County until 1874, when he moved to St. Charles County, MO, where he practiced medicine until 1877. He then became editor of the local newspaper Cosmos. He moved to Roanoke, VA in 1888 and became editor of the Roanoke Daily Times, and continued as a newspaper editor. He died in 1924.

Francis Withers Capers, student 1835-1836

Capers attended and graduated from the College of Charleston after leaving R-MC. He was a professor at The Citadel, Transylvania University, and then was appointed superintendent at The Citadel in 1853.  In September 1859, he became Superintendent of the new Georgia Military Academy in Marietta, GA.At the onset of the war, he was responsible for training GA troops. On November 11, 1861, he was appointed brigadier general, charged with guarding the coast. He returned to Georgia Military Academy a year later, but by 1863 was in charge of creating defensive works in Northern Georgia and was teaching military tactics and engineering. He commanded his cadets at the Battle of Atlanta and at other battles in Georgia.

The Georgia Military Institute had been destroyed in the war, so Capers opened his own school in 1865.  He went to the College of Charleston in 1869, where he was a professor of mathematics and civil engineering until 1889, also serving as president 1880-1882. He died January 12, 1891 and is buried in Charleston, SC in Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery.

Abraham F. Cox, student 1853-1854

Cox was a physician in Westmoreland County, VA when he enlisted on May 25, 1861as a sergeant in Co. C of the 9th VA Cavalry. By November 1861, his rank is listed as private. He was taken prisoner on July3, 1863 at Gettysburg and sent to Fort McHenry, MD and then to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE.  He was paroled July 30, 1863, and returned to his company. Cox was shot in the left arm at Nance's Shop, VA on June 24, 1864, and hospitalized at Chimborazo in Richmond, VA.

After the war, Cox became a dentist  in Baltimore, MD and then in Alexandria, VA. He died September 16, 1902 and is buried in Saint Paul's Cemetery in Alexandria, VA.

Robert S. Jones, student 1858-1861

Jones, younger brother of Richard Watson Jones, John Randolph Jones, and William Mordecai Jones, enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 12th VA Infantry on June 6, 1861. He transferred to Co. I of the 12th VA Infantry, commanded by his older brother Richard, on May 1, 1862. He was wounded on June 1, 1862 at the Battle of Seven Pines, VA and hospitalized, then sent home to recover until the end of 1862. He was detailed in early 1863 to enroll conscripts, and was then detailed in May 1863 to the Provost Marshal in Weldon, NC. The letter of support from his brother and commanding office, Richard W. Jones, and the letter confirming disability for field service from the regiment's surgeon, James W. Claiborne, indicate Robert S. Jones was a sergeant at that time. He died of disease at home in Hicksford, Greensville County, VA (now part of Emporia, VA) on July 11, 1863.

John Randolph Jones, student 1853-1854

Jones received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1858 and was practicing medicine in Greenville County at the start of the war. He enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 12th VA Infantry on June 6, 1861. He was promoted to corporal on August 20, 1861. On November 24, 1861, his rank was reduced to private at his request and he was detailed on hospital duty. During much of 1862, he was sick with chronic dysentery and was deemed unable to return to field service. He was discharged from the 12th VA Infantry and promoted to hospital steward on December 23, 1862.  He was appointed Assistant Surgeon on June 1, 1864, with the appointment retroactive to December 29, 1863. He was paroled in Albany, GA on May 16, 1865.

Dr. Jones returned to Hicksford, Greenville County, VA, now part of Emporia, VA, and farmed and practiced medicine. His widow's pension application states that he died of kidney disease on March 24, 1904. His obituary in the Journal of the American Medical Association lists the date of death as March 25, and his tombstone indicates the death date as March 27. He is buried in Emporia Cemetery in Emporia, VA.

William Mordecai Jones, Class of 1860

Jones, the younger brother of Richard Watson Jones, was teaching school when he enlisted on May 4, 1861 as a private in the Greensville Guard, which became Co. F of the 5th Battalion VA Infantry. He was discharged on May 16, 1862. An 1888 biographical sketch in Brock's Virginia and Virginians indicates he served in Petersburg, VA in the Quartermaster Department for the remainder of the war.

After the war, Jones taught from 1865-1871 at Wesleyan Female College. He then moved to Norfolk, Va and became a partner in the commission merchant firm of Jones, Lee, and Co. A prominent businessman, he also served as chairman of the Norfolk school board and was the treasurer for the board of the city water commissioners. He died April 15, 1908 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, VA.

Thomas Crawford Campbell, student 1856-1857

Campbell was working as an apothecary in Petersburg, VA in 1860. He enlisted as a private in Co. E of the 12th VA Infantry on March 22, 1862. He was detailed to the Medical Purveyor's Office in Wilmington, NC and spent the next 2 years acquiring medical supplies. In 1864 he was appointed hospital steward and served as apothecary after his regiment recalled him and he was given a certificate of disability due to rheumatism.

He was a grocery clerk in Petersburg, VA in 1870, and was working as a clerk at the time of his death. He died on October 31, 1895 and is buried in Petersburg, VA in Blandford Cemetery.

Richard Dabney Thackston, student 1859-1861

Thackston enlisted as a private on August 17, 1861 in Co. D of the 18th VA Infantry. In 1862, he transferred to Co. F of the 18th VA Infantry upon reenlistment. In June and August he is listed as sick and absent, and in October 1862 he was detailed to the hospital at Camp Lee in Richmond,VA, as a nurse, staying until at least February 1863.  By April, he was again back with his company.  He was taken prisoner at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 and sent to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE, where he remained until he was exchanged on February 8, 1865 upon taking the oath of allegiance.

Oliver H. P. Terrell, student 1850-1851

Terrell, a farmer in Orange County at the beginning of the war, enlisted in the Albemarle (VA) Light Artillery as a private on July 15, 1861. He was discharged for disability due to rheumatism on July 29, 1861. A letter in support of his discharge indicates he was prone to "violent and frequent attacks of inflammatory rheumatism, brough on by the slightest exertion." In 1862, a Confederate field hospital was located on Terrell's farm. On August 1, 1863, he became a private in Co. D of the 20th VA Battalion Heavy Artillery, probably conscripted back into the service. He was detailed as a clerk to Major Selden from October 16, 1863 until at least April 1864, when he was detailed as an "agriculturalist," returning to his farm "Glencoe," near Grodonsville, VA. Numerous receipts for crops received by the Confederates from Terrell still exist. Terrell was considered AWOL after Dec. 19, 1864 when his detail was expired and on February 26, 1865, his captain requested that Terrell's detail be revoked and that Terrell return to the company. By late March of 1865, Terrell was again requesting to be examined for discharge due to disability.

Afte rthe war, he returned to farming in Orange County, VA, moving to Louisa County by 1900. He died on March 22, 1922 and is buried in the Terrell Family Cemetery off Route 732 in Orange, County, VA.

Charles Lafayette Jackson, student 1859-1861

Jackson enlisted in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry on July 1, 1861. He was wounded at the Battle of Haw's Shop in Hanover County, VA May 28, 1864 and admitted on May 29 to Jackson Hospital in Richmond, VA. He was wounded in the nose and the minie ball entered his brain. He died June 4, 1864.

John Baptist Boyd, student 1858-1860

Boyd enlisted in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry on September 1, 1862. He was wounded on September 15, 1862 at Boonsboro, MD. Boyd was wounded again at the Battle of Trevillian Station near Louisa Court House, VA on June 12, 1864 and this time died of his wounds.

Nathaniel Price Boyd, student 1859-1861

Boyd enlisted in Co. B of the 2nd MS Infantry on March 3, 1862. He was killed at the age of 18 in battle on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg.

Achillus Buford Coleman, student 1860-1861

Variously spelled as Achellus, Achellis, Achilles, and Archellus in reference to the same individual, his name in the R-MC matriculation book simply states "A. Buford Coleman." He enlisted in Co. C of the 21st VA Infantry on June 20, 1861. Coleman spent much of the war in hospitals in Stuanton, Lynchburg, Richmond, and Farmville with illnesses such as nephritis, syphilitic rheumatism, syphilitic erythma, and morbi varii (general illness with unknown origin). He was eventually detailed as a clerk in the hospital in Farmville in March 1865.

He survived his illnesses and moved to Kentucky after the war, where he was a teacher in Trigg County in 1870.  By 1900, he was farming in Princeton in Caldwell County,KY. He died January 9, 1912 and is buried in Princeton, KY in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Daniel Dodson, student 1835-1836

Dodson attended R-MC with his younger brother, John (who became a prominent lawyer and first mayor of Petersburg, VA) for one year. Daniel was a banker in Petersburg, VA, when he organized the Petersburg Riflemen in 1859 as part of the state militia. He resigned from the company October 1, 1861 as he was over 40 and was needed at the Bank of Virginia’s Petersburg branch. He remained in Petersburg for the duration of the war, eventually being responsible for the sale of war bonds. He took the oath of allegiance in Petersburg on June 17, 1865. His application to President Johnson for a pardon indicates he held no other military office.

After the war, he remained in banking, serving for several years as Cashier at the First National Bank of Petersburg. At the time of his death, he was treasurer of the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. A New York Times article from July 28, 1879 lists the Dodson family and several neighbors, 14 people in all, as sick from food poisoning after eating ice cream made at the Dodson’s home. Captain Dodson died July 31, presumably from the effects of the food poisoning. He is buried in Petersburg's Blandford Cemetery.

Virginius W. Harrison, student 1845-1846

Harrison attended the University of Virginia after leaving R-MC, and then graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1851. He was a physician in Petersburg, VA at the beginning of the war, having also served as postmaster at City Point, VA (now Hopewell) for several months in 1854. Dr. Harrison enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 5th VA Cavalry on September 2, 1861. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon on October 8, 1861 and detached for hospital service. He was in charge of Petersburg's General Hospital #20, located in the Royster Brotehr's Tobacco Factory building on Twenty-fifth Street, until June 1863. He was promoted to Surgeon on January 5, 1863, retroactive to October 7, 1862. In July of  1863, he was sent first to the hospital at Mt. Jackson, VA, and then to Harrisonburg, VA, and was back in Richmond by December 1863.  On September 17, 1864, he was attached to Kirkland's Brigade and by December 1864 was in Wilmington, NC. He was paroled in Richmond, VA on May 11, 1865.

After the war, Harrison practiced medicine in Petersburg, VA until his death on April 29, 1873. He is buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA.

John W. Sanderson, student 1862-1863

Sanderson enlisted in Co. F of the 15th VA Cavalry on January 1, 1864. This later became Co. F of the 5th VA Cavalry. He was hospitalized for syphilis in Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond in March 1865, but evacuated with the army in April, 1865.  He was at the CSA General Hospital in Farmville, VA on April 7, 1865 with typhoid fever and he was paroled in the hospital sometime near April 15, 1865. 

After the war, he returned home to Norfolk County, where he was a farmer in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. He died November 4, 1906. According to his obituary, his remains were "forwarded to Hickory Ground, his former home."

James W. McBroom, student 1855-1856

McBroom attended the University of Virginia in 1856-57 after leaving R-MC and then in 1858 received a law degree from Cumberland University in Lebanon, TN.  He was practicing law when he enlisted on May 6, 1861 as 1st lieutenant in the Prince George Rifles, which became Co. C of the 6th Battalion VA (Archer's) Infantry. He was promoted to captain on January 15, 1862, leading an artillery company. He was was detailed as a scout in 1864, serving in that capacity until the end of the war.

In 1870, he was teaching school in Lebanon County, VA. He was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for Wise and Buchanon Counties (VA) in 1871, and in 1874 was elected to that office for Russell County (VA), eventually being elected judge. He was later appointed judge in Abingdon, VA, where he also served as postmaster in 1896. McBroom died on January 12, 1916 and is buried in Abingdon's Sinking Spring Cemetery.

John F. Blunt, student 1862-1863

Blunt enlisted on October 27, 1863 as a private in Allen's Co. of the Lunenburg (VA) Artillery. He was hospitalized for dysentery at Chimborazo in Richmond in August, 1864. He was wounded in the left leg at the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865, captured and hospitalized at City Point, VA, receiving "water treatment." Blunt died on April 15, 1865.

Thomas Randolph Sangster, student 1851-1852

Sangster enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 17th VA Infantry on June 3, 1861. He was killed on July 18, 1861 at the Battle of Blackburn's Ford, a skirmish during the buildup to First Manassas, or the First Battle of Bull Run. Sangster was the brother-in-law of William Wallace Bennett, a Methodist minister and president of Randolph-Macon College from 1877-1886, and younger brother of James Sangster, Class of 1853.

James Sangster, Class of 1853

Sangster, a farmer in Alexandria,VA in the 1860 census, was a refugee in Richmond with his wife and several young children. He was a clerk with the Ordnance Dept., and was serving as a clerk in the Quartermasters Dept. when he applied on May 2, 1863 for a clerical position in the Confederate Treasury Department, to which he was appointed June 19, 1863. He remained with the Treasury Dept. through the rest of the war and was one of the clerks who packed the Treasury's gold prior to fleeing Richmond and who accompanied the gold to Danville, VA. While serving in the Treasury Department, he was conscripted into Co. K of the 3rd Battalion VA Local Defense Infantry, a unit in which he was enrolled on October 23, 1863. He applied for an exemption in Dec. 1864 due to his service with the Treasury Department.

After the war, Sangster was a lawyer in Fairfax County, VA. He served as a judge for Alexandria and Fairfax, VA from approximately 1874-1885, having served prior to the war as county sheriff of Alexandria in 1859-1860. He later represented Fairfax in the VA state legislature and became a justice of the peace. He died April 27, 1906 and is buried in Lee Chapel Cemetery in Fairfax County, VA.  Sangster Elementary School in Fairfax, VA is named for him.

Sampson Theopilus Lane, student 1857-1858

Lane, who was living in Memphis, TN in the 1860 census, enlisted as a private on May 16, 1861 in Co. A of the 7th TN Cavalry. On October 1, 1863, he joined Co. F of George's Regiment Mississippi Cavalry, which became the 5th MS Cavalry. He was captured October 29, 1863 at Collierville, TN, near Memphis. His regimental record indicates uncertainty about his fate, stating "captured or deserted at Collierville Nov. 3, 1863." He was sent on November 8, 1863 to the military prison at Alton, Illinois where he remained until April 4, 1864, when he was transferred to the the prison at Fort Delaware, DE, arriving on April 8. He was released from prison on June 11, 1865 when he took the oath of allegiance.


Lane returned to Memphis after the war and was a farmer and practiced law for a number of years. He was licensed to preach in 1871 in the Methodist church and in 1874 became a minister in Paducah, KY. He then taught school in Tennessee for several years and later taught school in various locations in Arkansas. The 1900 census lists Lane as a teacher in Bonanza, Sebastian County, Arkansas. He then moved to Oklahoma to teach and by 1910, he was living in Poteau, Oklahoma and is listed in the census as Justice of the Peace. Lane died February 28, 1933 and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Poteau, OK.

Theelbert Archer Perkins, student 1860-1861

Perkins' military records variously appear under Theelbert A., Thelbert A., Thulbert A., Thomas A., and T. A., but all are for the same individual. He enlisted as a private on April 30, 1861 in the Hargrove Blues, which became Co. I of the 12th VA Infantry later that year. In 1862, the company became Co. H of the 9th VA Infantry. In April 1863, he was detached to the Quartermaster's Dept. in Richmond, VA for an unknown period of time. By 1864, he was serving as a private in Co. I of the 3rd VA Cavalry. Perkins was killed near Spotsylvania Court House, VA on May 8, 1864.

Thomas Gordon Elam, student 1865-1866

Elam enlisted as a private in Co. E of the 14th VA Infantry on May 12, 1861. He was discharged on August 15, 1862. He joined Epes' Co. of Johnston's Artillery as a private on February 21, 1863. In July 1863, he applied for a discharge to attend VMI but the application was denied. He was detailed as a courier, during which time he learned to use the telegraph, and was then detailed as a telegraph operator at Chaffin's Bluff, VA. Elam was taken prisoner on March 2, 1865 at Waynesboro, VA and sent to the prison at Fort Delaware, DE, from which he was released upon taking the oath of allegiance on May 20, 1865. His

After the war, Elam attended Randolph-Macon College from 1865-1866. In 1870, Elam was a railroad agent in Suffolk, VA. He founded a newspaper, the Suffolk (VA) Herald in 1873, and was editor and publisher for a number of years.  By 1899, he was editor of the Hampton Monitor, and he also served as editor of the Danville Register. He later went into the insurance business in Roanoke, VA.  His obituary in the April, 1916 edition of Confederate Veteran indicates he held the rank of captain at the end of the war, but the military records, including the record of his capture, do not indicate his rank ever changed from private during the war.

Leroy Marion Wilson, Class of 1854

Wilson, a farmer in Mecklenburg County in 1860, enlisted as a private in the Boydton Cavalry, Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry on August 20, 1861. He served as company clerk until March 1862, and in June 1862, he was detailed to the Commissary Department. In September 1862, he was commissioned by the Confederate Congress as Assistant Commissary with the rank of captain. In August 1863, he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster and assigned to Smyth County, VA.

After the war, he moved to Baltimore, MD, where he is listed as a "Commission Merchant" in the 1870 and 1889 censuses. His fate after 1880 is unknown at present.

Sydnor Gilbert Ferguson, student 1869-1871

Ferguson joined Mosby's Rangers at the age of 17, enlisting as a private in Co. B of the 43rd VA Battalion Cavalry on November 21, 1863. He is credited with capturing Union Captain Richard Blazer in Jefferson County, WV in November, 1864 after knocking him on the head with a pistol. Ferguson was paroled on April 22, 1865 in Winchester, VA.

After the war, he returned home to Fauquier County, VA and finished his schooling. He preached in the Hillsboro Circuit of the Baltimore Conference for a year and a half and then entered Randolph-Macon College in 1869. He remained a Methodist minister in the Baltimore Conference for the rest of this life, serving circuits in Virginia and in West Virginia, except for a single year in Baltimore. He died March 7, 1904 and is buried in Edge Hill Cemetery in Charles Town, WV.

Robert Boyd Thornton, student 1858-1860

Thornton enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 12th NC Infantry on April 29, 1861. He was hospitalized in Richmond, VA with chronic diarrhea in July 1862. He received a slight wound in the arm at the Battle of Chancellorsville, VA on May 3, 1863. Thornton was wounded again two months later at the Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, and this time the wound in his left leg necessitated amputation. He was taken prisoner on July 3 and hospitalized at Letterman General Hospital in Gettysburg. On September 10, 1863, he was transferred to a hospital in Baltimore, MD, and then was sent on September 26, 1863 to  City Point, VA and exchanged the following day, and admitted to Winder Hospital in Richmond, VA, and then sent home to to Macon, Warren County, NC. He applied for an artificial leg in a early 1864, and he was present at the CSA General Hospital in Charlottesville, VA for an undetermined amount of time in May 1864 and in August 1864, apparently receiving the leg.

He returned to farming in Warren County, NC after the war. He died February 3, 1909.

A.C. Yancey, student 1861-1862

Yancey enlisted as a private in Co. G of the 14th VA Infantry on August 1, 1862. He was promoted to corporal on January 15, 1863 and sergeant on May 15, 1863. Yancey was killed in battle on July 3, 1863 at the Gettysburg.

George William Prince, student 1857-1858

Prince enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 12th VA Infantry on June 6, 1861. He furnished a substitute on November 15, 1862, and the substitute deserted one day later.   His widow's pension application indicates he transferred to the cavalry, but the records are unclear as to this service.

Prince returned to Sussex County, VA where he was county clerk from 1861-1865, having been deputy clerk under his father in 1860. He is credited with saving many county records from destruction by hiding them prior to the Union occupation. In 1880, he was living in Hertford county, NC where he was a farmer and merchant. By 1900, he was living in Southampton County, VA and was a farmer. He died on February 13, 1924 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Newsoms, Southamton County, VA.

Roger A. Gregory, student 1858-1860

Gregory enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry, the Boydton Cavalry, on July 25, 1861. He was taken prisoner at Warrenton, VA on Novemebr 12, 1862 and paroled 2 days later. His horse, valued at $450, was killed on July 1, 1863 at Brandy Station, VA. He was captured on July 5, 1863 near Williamsport, MD. It is unknown when and where he was imprisoned, but he is listed in the company rolls as absent into the fall of 1863 and as present by March, 1864. He was again captured on May 11, 1864 at Beaver Dam, VA and sent to the military prison at Fort Monroe, VA. On May 16, 1864, he was sent to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD. He remained there until exchanged on March 15, 1865 at Aiken's Landing, VA.  He took the oath of allegiance in Richmond, VA on June 6, 1865.

Gregory is listed as a farmer in Boydton, VA in the 1870 census, living in the household of John W. Jones, a former schoolmate who was by then teaching at R-MC.  He is a farmer in 1880 and 1900, having married but remaining in Mecklenburg County, VA. He was a music teacher in the 1910 census.

John S. Rees, student 1856-1857

Rees, who was from Claysville in Hampshire County, VA (now WV), enlisted as a private in Co. K of the 13th VA Infantry on July 2, 1861. He was hospitalized in Front Royal, VA on December 29, 1861, where he died on January 18, 1862 of phthisis, or tuberculosis.

Thomas Jordan Jarvis, Class of 1860 (A.B.) and 1867 (A.M.)

Jarvis, son of a Methodist minister, was teaching in Pasquotank County, NC when the war began. He enlisted as a private in the 17th NC Infantry on May 4, 1861, serving only  few weeks when he was commissioned on May 16, 1861 as 2nd lieutenant in Co. B of the 8th NC Infantry, a company he organized in Currituck County, NC. He was taken prisoner on February 8, 1862 at Roanoke Island, NC and exchanged in late summer 1862. He was promoted to captain on April 22, 1863. Jarvis was wounded in the right shoulder and arm at Drewry's Bluff, VA on May 14, 1864. Five inches of his upper right arm were resectioned that day in General Hospital No. 4 in Richmond, and the remarks in his records indicate he was "doing well," although he would never regain use of the arm. He recuperated in Richmond and Petersburg until finally being sent home to NC, his war service over.

He operated a store in Tyrell County, NC and studied law right after the war, and began practicing law in 1867. Jarvis was elected to the NC state legislature in 1868, the beginning of a long political career. He served as North Carolina's lieutenant-governor from 1877-1879, when he became governor, an office he held until 1885 when he was appointed U.S. Minister to Brazil. He left the ambassadorship in 1889 and practiced law. He served briefly in the US Senate 1894-1895, returning to his law practice afterwards. Jarvis was known as a strong proponent of public education. He died January 17, 1915 and is buried in Cherry Hill Cemetery in Greenville, NC.

Garrett Anderson, student 1856-1857

After leaving R-MC, Anderson attended medical school at the University of Virginia in 1858-59 and then attended the University of the City of New York, graduating with a medical degree in 1860. He was working in a hospital in New York City at the outbreak of the war and returned home to King and Queen County, VA. He is listed as absent and "exempt" on a December 18, 1861 roster of Co. B of the 9th VA Militia. He later enlisted in Co. C of the 24th VA Cavalry on September 22, 1862, but was absent from the regiment for most of the war as he was appointed a hospital steward on October 15, 1862, a position in which he served until the war's end. He was paroled in Williamsburg, VA on May 12, 1865.

Dr. Anderson returned to King and Queen County, VA after the war and practiced medicine.  He died August 4, 1904 and is buried in the cemetery at Shackelsford Chapel United Methodist Church in Plain View, King and Queen County, VA, the church he attended. Although there are reports he has a marker in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery, a search of Hollywood's burial records do not list him.

Medicus H. Hight, student 1854-1855

Hight was a Methodist minister in North Carolina assigned to the Tar River Colored mission in Tarsboro at the beginning of the war. He requested in 1861 not to be given a ministerial appointment as he served as a chaplain in the Confederate army, and he served as a chaplain to the North Carolina State Troops. In 1862, he was assigned to the Henderson circuit in North Carolina. He died in either 1862 or 1863 and is believed to be buried in Kittrell, in Vance County, NC.

Willliam Norman Holt, student 1860-1861

Holt enlisted as a private on May 30, 1862 on Co. G of the 55th NC Infantry. He was promoted to sergeant major immediately. He was transferred to Co. H and promoted to lieutenant on May 8, 1863. He was wounded in the left arm at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 and taken prisoner. He was hospitalize din Gettysburg until mid-August and then transferred to a hospital in Baltimore, MD, from which he was exchanged at City Point, VA on September 27, 1863. He was hospitalized in Richmond, VA for about a week after that. He wrote a letter resigning from his rank of 2nd lieutenant on March 31, 1864 due to the aftereffects of his wounds and was detailed as a private to the quartermaster department,serving as a clerk in Raleigh, NC.

After the war, he was a businessman in Wilmington, NC until his move to Savannah, GA in 1877. His business interests in Savannah included naval stores and real estate, and he was a partner in the firm of Ellis, Holt & Co. until his death in 1886. He also served as the Recording Secretary of the Georgia Historical Society from 1884-1886. Holt died on November 17, 1886 and is buried in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.

Robert Melville Hicks, student 1861-1862

Hicks enlisted as a private in Co. H of the 23rd VA Cavalry on January 20, 1864. He was promoted to second lieutenant on April 20, 1864. He was paroled April 25, 1865.

He lived in August County, VA after the war where he was a hotel attendant in the 1870 census and a farm superintendent in the 1880 census. An 1882 C&O Railroad directory indicates he had a livery stable, and he is listed as a railroad agent on his 1889 death certificate. An 1884 journal indicates he is both ticket agent and "the"genial and accommodating proprietor of the well kept eating house at that point." He died on September 25, 1889 and is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Waynesboro, VA.

Henry Blount Hunter, student 1861-1863

Hunter enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry, the Boydton Cavalry, on June 1, 1863.  He was hospitalized in June 1864 in Richmond, Va for diarrhea and was granted a furlough to return home to Ridgeway, NC, where he was transferred to Co. E of the 1st NC Cavalry in July of 1864.

Hunter was a farmer in Warren County, NC in the 1880, 1900, and 1910 censuses. He died February 21, 1923 of kidney and heart disease and is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Warrenton, NC.

George D. M. Hunter, student 1860-1861

Hunter enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 39th VA Cavalry Battalion on January 23, 1864.He was paroled at Louisa Court House on May 15, 1865 as he was on furlough at the time of the surrender.

After the war, he returned home to Louisa County, where he is listed as a clerk in the 1870, 1900, and 1910 censuses; a farmer in 1880; and a justice of the peace in 1920. Hunter died on March 22, 1924 and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Louisa, VA.

Charles B. Hundley, student 1862-1863

Hundley, a native of Mississippi, was living in Charlotte County, VA when he enrolled at R-MC under the college's military curriculum. He enlisted in Co. B of the 14th VA Cavalry on October 27, 1864.  He received a head wound at Cedarville, VA on November 13, 1864.  He was paroled at Farmville, VA on April 27, 1865.

After the war, he returned to Mississippi  and was living in Greenville, Washington County, MS in the 1870 census.   His date of death is unknown, but his widow was living in Yazoo City, MS in 1913.

Note: He should not be confused with the VMI cadet of the same name and age from Essex County, VA.

John Hazlewood, student 1856-1857

Hazlewood, son of Dr. James E. Hazlewood of Lunenburg County, VA, enlisted  as a private on May 20, 1861 in the Flat Rock Riflemen, which became Co. C of the 20th VA Infantry. He was captured at Rich Mountain, then part of VA but now WV, on July 11, 1861 and paroled the same day. The regiment was disbanded in September 1861. He later enlisted on September 1, 1862 as a private in Captain Allen's Company of the Lunenburg (VA) Light Artillery, a company his younger brother James W. joined in January 1863. In summer of 1863, Hazlewood was detailed to the hospital department to work as a nurse but returned to the company in the fall. He was granted a leave to deal with his ailing father's affairs in January 1864. On April 30, 1864, he was transferred into Co. G of the 56th Infantry when the artillery company was disbanded. He was paroled at Burkesville Junction, Va, in April 1865.

By 1870, he had moved to West Virginia, where he was a farmer in Mercer Ccounty and then in Monroe County. He died January 19, 1918 and is buried in Swope Cemetery in Lindside, WV.

Note: Hazlewood's military records alternately list him as John J and John I. He should not be confused with another John J. Hazlewood of Lunenburg County of about the same age with a farmer father also named James, who enlisted in Co. B of the 20th VA Infantry and then later in the 22nd Battalion VA Infantry, and who was disabled and discharged in 1864.

Charles Wesley Jarratt, student 1860-1861

Jarratt enlisted as a private in Co. D of the 5th VA Cavalry on May 17, 1861. This company became Co. B of the 13th VA Cavalry in 1862. Jarratt, son of a prominent Petersburg businessman and hotel owner, furnished a substitute, Thomas W. Rainey, who took his place on October 13, 1862. There is some indication that Jarratt was conscripted into the light artillery later in the war.

By 1876, Jarratt had moved to Denison in Grayson County, TX, where he was a cotton buyer. He appears under the same profession in the 1880 census in Sherman, also in Grayson County, where he was residing with James R. Cowles, another Randolph-Macon alumnus and war veteran. His subsequent history is unknown.

Benjamin Franklin Jarratt, student 1856-1861

Jarratt enlisted as a sergeant on May 24, 1861 in Co. A of the 41st VA Infantry. He was promoted to lieutenant on May 1, 1862. He was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Second Manassas on August 30, 1862 . He was detached for light duty in January 1863 to enroll conscripts in Sussex County, VA. Jarratt was promoted to captain on September 15, 1864. He was found not guilty in January 1865 during court-martial proceedings of a charge of being drunk on duty, and served until he surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Jarratt lived in Belfield in Greensville County,VA after the war where the censuses record him as a farmer. He died August 1, 1913 and is buried in the Jarratt family cemetery in Sussex County, VA.

Charles Henry Tarry (Terry), student 1856-1857

Tarry was a plantation overseer, probably for his father's holdings, in Dallas County, AL in the 1860 census.  He enlisted in Co. K of the 15th Alabama Infantry in March 1862. He died of measles in Richmond, VA on July 6, 1862 and is buried in the Confederate section of Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery under the variant spelling of his last name as Terry. No official records of his service survive.

Samuel G. Talbott, student 1861-1862

Talbott, cousin to Allan and Charles Talbott, enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 13th VA Battalion Light Artillery on March 22, 1862. He was  hospitalized in May 1864 at Chimborazo in Richmond, VA for "morbi cutis," or a skin disease. He was paroled in Richmond, VA on April 18, 1865.

By 1880 he was a manager in a tobacco factory in Richmond. He died November 27, 1891 and is buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

Allan Talbott, student 1859-1862

Talbott, brother of Charles H. Talbott, joined the 4th VA Battalion Local Defense Infantry on September 17, 1863, serving as lieutenant and adjutant. He was paroled in Richmond, VA on April 21, 1865.

After the war, Talbott was a mechanical engineer and machinist in Richmond, VA with the family firm as was his brother. Talbott died on June 28, 1901 and is buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

Charles H. Talbott, student 1858-1860

Talbott, brother of Allan Talbott, enlisted as a private in Co. I of the 4th VA Cavalry on May 8, 1861.  He was discharged on October 28, 1861 by order of the Secretary of War in order to assist with the family business, Talbott & Brothers, a foundry in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, VA that had been founded by his father and uncle and which had been contracted by the Ordnance Dept. The foundry, which specialized in steam engines and other machinery, was taken over by the Navy in February 1862 for the remainder of the war, becoming the CS Naval Works. In September of 1863, Talbott was recommended to serve as a drillmaster, and the recommendation indicated had been serving as such for some time.

After the war, Talbott was a mechanical engineer in Richmond, VA with the family firm. He died on April 8, 1912 and is buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. his gravestone states his service as 3rd VA Cavalry 1861-1865, but the military records show otherwise.