Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Garland B. Hanes, Class of 1854 (A.B.) and 1857 (A.M.)

Garland Brown Hanes enlisted as a captain on May 29, 1861 in Co. F of the 20th VA Infantry, and later was transferred to Co. A of the 57th VA Infantry.  Hanes was promoted to major on April 15, 1862. In September of 1862, a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury asking for employment is marked "employed," so he presumably left his regiment prior to that (there are indications he was hospitalized for a time in 1862) and then served in the confederate bureaucracy.

Garland Hanes had been a teacher and principal at Buckingham Institute in Buckingham County, VA, prior to his military service.  By 1870, he was practicing law in Buckingham County.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Hezekiah Gilbert Leigh, Class of 1851 (A.B.) and 1854 (A.M.)

Leigh enlisted as a surgeon on March 16, 1862 and was commissioned into the 58th VA Infantry. He was detailed for much of this time to the 5th LA Infantry, to which he was formally transferred on June 15, 1862. In January 1864 Dr. Leigh was sent to a hospital in Raleigh, NC, where he was paroled on May 11, 1865.

He had graduated from New york medical college in 1856 and practiced medicine in Petersburg, VA after the war. Dr. Leigh died October 17, 1898 and is buried in Petersburg's Blandford Cemetery.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Robert E. Leigh, student 1856-1857

Robert E. Leigh joined the Co. A of the 5th Battalion MS Infantry September 11, 1861. He was commissioned as second lieutenant in Co. I of the 43rd MS Infantry on December 1, 1861. He resigned on February 10, 1862, and no further record of service has been located..

The 1860 census lists him as a merchant in Columbus, MS and he owned 3 slaves. No further record is found, although a family history indicates he was killed in 1862.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Joseph E. Leigh, Class of 1857

Joseph E. Leigh enlisted as a sergeant on February 28, 1861 in the 5th Regiment, 1st Brigade MS Volunteers, which later became Co. A of the 44th VA Infantry.  He was commissioned first lieutenant on April 1, 1862. He resigned on August 19, 1864 with no reason given. 

After the war he practiced law in Columbus, MS. Leigh died November 7, 1891.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Richard W. Leigh, Class of 1849 (A.B.) and 1853 (A.M.)

Richard W. Leigh initially enlisted as a lieutenant in Co. A of the 5th Battalion MS Infantry in 1861. This later became Co. I of the  MS 43rd Infantry. Leigh was promoted on May 14, 1862 to lieutenant colonel upon the regiment change.

He was killed in battle at Corinth, MS on October 3, 1862. He is buried in Friendship Cemetery in
Columbus, MS.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

John Henry Guy, Class of 1851

John Henry Guy was a lawyer in Goochland County, VA when he enlisted on June 6, 1861 as captain of the Goochland Light Artillery. he was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson, TN on February 16, 1861 and sent to Camp Chase, OH. He was moved to the prison at Johnson's Island, OH on April 24, 1862 where he remained until he was exchanged at Vicksburg, MS on September 1, 1862. Guy returned to Virginia and was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the VA 2nd Battalion Reserves, which saw significant action in the defense of Richmond and Petersburg.

Guy returned to his law practice after the war, and also served briefly in the state legislature. He died June 16, 1890 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Armstreet E. Fowlkes, Class of 1851 (A.B.) and 1854 (A.M.)

Armstreet E. Fowlkes enlisted as a private on June 7, 1861 in the Lunenburg Light Dragoons, Co. G of the 9th VA Cavalry. he was promoted three times: to corporal on July 2, 1861; to sergeant on January 31, 1862; and to second lieutenant on April 28, 1862.  Fowlkes was killed on September 15, 1862 during a charge at Boonsboro, MD, part of the Battle of South Mountain, leaving his infant son orphaned. his enlistment information records his occupation as farmer. He was described as "an officer of fine abilities and extraordinary promise."

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Archibald Cargill Massenburg, Class of 1854

Massenburg enlisted as a private in Company L of the15th NC Infantry on May 20, 1861. He was promoted to sergeant on July 1, 1861. He was transferred to the Field and Staff of the NC 15th and promoted to captain on November 14, 1861, serving as the Assistant Commissary of Subsistence. He was reassigned to Company D as second lieutenant on September 13, 1863. He was wounded in the right ankle on October 14, 1863 at Bristoe Station, VA. Massenburg died from chronic diarrhea on August 1, 1864 at his family home, Woodleaf Plantation, in Franklin County, NC.

Monday, January 23, 2012

John Edmund Penn, student 1856-1857

Penn enlisted as a private in Co. H of the 42nd VA Infantry on May 22, 1861 and shortly after became captain. He was wounded in the left leg at Antietam, MD on September 17, 1862. Penn was taken prisoner and had his leg amputated above the knee on September 18, 1862. He was imprisoned in Baltimore's Fort McHenry on October 11, 1862 and exchanged at City Point, VA on December 4, 1862. Penn resigned due to disability on February 23, 1863. He was promoted to major on January 24, 1863, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel and colonel in April 1863, after his resignation from the army.

After the war, he was a lawyer, judge, and state senator. Penn died September 27, 1895 and is buried in City Cemetery in Roanoke, Virginia.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Hugh Walker Gardner, student 1852-1853

Hugh Walker Gardner attended the University of North Carolina after leaving Randolph-Macon. He was a physician in North Carolina at the outbreak of the war, and enlisted as a private on August 13, 1861 in Co. G of the18th NC Infantry.On July 11, 1862 (effective May 31, 1862) he was promoted to surgeon and major in the Field and Staff of the 18th, transferring on July 15, 1862 to the 33rd NC Infantry. Dr. Gardner died September 7, 1862 from an abcess of the liver in Officerr's Hospital No. 10 in Richmond, VA possibly related to his having contracted "Chickahominy Fever," probably malaria, just after the Seven Days' Battles. He is buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, NC. his

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Joseph Van Holt Nash, student, early 1850s

Nash enlisted on May 17, 1861 as a private in an as yet unknown company, possibly Co. B, of the 5th VA Cavalry, a regiment that was reorganized in 1862, with Nash assigned to Company B of the 13th VA Cavalry. He was detailed in January of 1862 to the engineering department.Nash was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Seven pines on may 31, 1862. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant and adjutant on August 16, 1862, and then to captain and assistant adjutant general (AAG) on November 2, 1863. He was wounded again at Petersburg, VA on June 16, 1864. Nash was paroled in Richmond, VA April 27, 1865.

Nash attended Randolph-Macon in the early 1850s prior to his enrollment in the University of Virginia in 1853. The 1870 census lists him as a merchant in Petersburg, VA. By 1880 he had moved to Atlanta, GA, where he became a publisher's agent, primarily for school books. He died November 17, 1900 and is buried in Atlanta's Westview Cemetery.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Leroy Richardson Kilby, student 1857-1859

Kilby enlisted as a private in the 16th VA Infantry, Co. B, on April 17, 1861. His occupation is listed as "law student." He was promoted to sergeant on August 20, 1861, to second lieutenant on January 13, 1862, and to captain on August 17, 1863. Kilby is credited with capturing the battle flag of the 100th Pennsylvania Infantry on July 30, 1864. He surrendered April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House.

After the war, kilby moved to norfolk, where he is listed in the 1870 census as a bookkeeper and the 1880 census as a cigar manufacturer. Kilby died October 12, 1883 and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suffolk, VA.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Edwin Hunter Muse, student 1857-1861

Edwin (also known as "Edward") H. Muse enlisted June 30, 1861 in the 18th VA Infantry, Co. G. He was wounded during the Seven Days' Battles at Frayser's Farm. He was wounded again on June 30, 1862, at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, and wounded once more at Sailor's Creek, VA in April 1865 and hospitalized in Farmville. Muse was promoted to sergeant on April 20, 1862 and to second  lieutenant on October 14, 1862. 

Muse died June 27, 1894 and is buried in Little Rock, Arkansas in Little Rock National Cemetery.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Oscar Malachi Styron, student 1857-1861

Oscar Malachi Styron enlisted in the 6th VA Infantry, Co. G on August 1, 1861. He was promoted to corporal on June 17, 1862 and to sergeant on February 1, 1863.  Muse was wounded in the right lung at the Battle of Second Manassas and discharged due to his wound. Ater recuperating in hospitals in Warrenton and Richmond, Styron married and went to Enfield, North Carolina, where he managed the farm of Charles Manly, former governor of N.C., until his death on March 17, 1865.

Styron sometimes used "Muse" as his his middle name, in honor of his close college friend Edward (Edwin) Muse, and this middle name was given to his son Oscar, Jr., who was born several months after Muse's death  A native of Princess Anne County, Styron is buried in a small family cemetery today located on a narrow strip of land between a subdivision and a drainage ditch on the edge of North Landing Road in Princess Anne County.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Thomas James Taylor, student 1854-1855

Taylor enlisted as a captain on July 10, 1861 in Co. E of the 56th VA Infantry. he doesn't appear on the muster rolls after May 5, 1862, but was commissioned into the Field and Staff of the 56th Virginia Infantry on March 28, 1864 as a surgeon. He had graduated from New York University Medical College in 1860. Dr. Taylor mustered out on August 13, 1864.

He practiced medicine in Brunswick County, VA until 1914. Dr. Taylor died January 6, 1918 and is buried in St. Mark's Episcopal Cemetery in Cochrane, VA.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Llewellyn Jones Hite, student 1857-1858

Llewellyn Hite enlisted on May 20, 1861 as a corporal in Company C of the 20th VA Infantry. He was taken prisoner at Rich mountain, WV on July 11, 1861, paroled on July 17, 1861, and discharged on September 27, 1861. Hite later enlisted as a private in Company G of the 9th VA Cavalry, on January 20, 1864 and was paroled on April 17, 1865 when he took the Oath of Allegiance. He spent his remaining years as a farmer in Lunenburg County, VA. His widow's pension application in 1900 indicates his cause of death as "paralysis."

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Thomas Claybrook Elder, class of 1854 (A.B.) and 1857 (A.M.)

Thomas Claybrook Elder enlisted as a private in 1862, serving first on the staff of Virginia General Roger Atkinson Pryor and then on the staff of General Edward A. Perry of the Florida brigade, under whom he was promoted to major and was Commissary of Subsistence in mid-1863. he surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

Elder practiced law in Staunton, VA after the war and was a prominent member of the Virginia Bar Asssociation, serving as its president, and he held several public offices in Staunton. He died November 22, 1904 and is buried in Staunton's Thornrose Cemetery.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Benjamin Haden Anthony, student 1854-1855

Benjamin Haden Anthony, older brother of John William Anthony, served as a private in Company I of the 2nd VA Cavalry from March 25, 1862 until October 29, 1862, when he was discharged upon providing a substitute, N. Roberts.  Anthony also served earlier with his brother in the "Southern Guards," Company B of the 11th VA Infantry. He took the oath of Allegiance in Campbell County, VA on May 30, 1865. His occupation in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses is "farmer." He died January 25, 1910 and is buried at Mount Hermon United Methodist Cemetery in Campbell County, VA.

Friday, January 13, 2012

George Edward Booker, Class of 1855 (A.B.) and 1858 (A.M.)

Booker was taught school and then servied as a Methodist minister prior to the war. He enlisted on September 5, 1861 as a captain in the 58th Virginia Infantry, Co. H. He was promoted to major but resigned and mustered out on May 1, 1862.  On September 25, 1862, he enlisted as chaplain of the 48th Virginia Infantry, serving until the end of the war. he was paroled in Richmond, VA on April 18, 1865

After the war, he again entered the ministry. He died in February, 1899 and is buried in the Woodside-Booker Family Cemetery in Cumberland County, VA.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

John Thompson Brown, student 1857-1861

John Thompson Brown enlisted on May 25, 1861 as a sergeant in Company A of the 20th Virginia Infantry. He was promoted and transferred on March 14, 1862, as 2nd lieutenant in Virginia's Parker's Light Artillery (Parker's Virginia Battery). He was taken prisoner at Marye's Heights (Fredericksburg, VA) on May 3, 1863 and wounded in the throat at Spotsylvania Court House (VA) on May 9, 1864.  he was promoted to captain, and was taken prisoner again at Sailor's Creek, VA, on April 5, 1865.

After the war he became prominent in Richmond real estate, served as president of an electric railway line, served in the sate legislature, and was active in the Army of Northern Virginia veteran's group, achieving the rank in the organization of "lieutenant general," with an honorific title "general' which all of his obituaries include.he died April 23, 1921 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

James Ferguson Dowdell, Class of 1840

James Ferguson Dowdell, a strong proponent of states' rights, signed the Ordinance of Secession as a member of the Convention of 1861 in the state of Alabama. He was commissioned as a colonel in the spring of 1862 in the 37th Alabama Infantry, a regiment that he raised. Dowdell was taken prisoner of war in 1863 at the siege of Vicksburg, MS, and was paroled, returning home due to ill health.

Prior to the war, Dowdell practiced law, was president of Oak Bowery Female College, served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1853-1859, became a Methodist minister, and in 1860 was listed as a farmer in the census with personal and real estate wealth valued at $78,000. After the war, he served from 1866-1870 as professor of moral philosophy and president of East Alabama College, which later became Auburn University. By 1870, his wealth as listed in the census had diminished to only $7,000 and his profession is listed as teacher. Dowdell died September 6, 1871 and is buried in Auburn's City Cemetery.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Anthony Dibrell, Class of 1860

Anthony Dibrell, brother of Watson Soule Dibrell, enlisted in the 1st Co. VA, 1st Co. Howitzers Light Artillery, the Richmond Howitzers, on April 21, 1861. He was promoted to corporal and then to sergeant. He took the oath of Allegiance in Richmond on April 18, 1865.

He is listed as a bank clerk in Leesburg, VA in the 1880 census. He died April 3, 1893 and is buried in Union Cemetery, Leesburg, VA.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Watson Soule Dibrell, student 1860-1862

Watson Soule Dibrell, brother of Anthony Dibrell, was a student at the college during the early years of the war when the college instituted a military training regimen similar to that of Virginia Military Institute. He enlisted as a private on August 19, 1862 in  the Virginia 1st Co. Howitzers Light Artillery Battery, the Richmond Howitzers.  He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

He was a mercantile agent in Norfolk, VA in  the 1870 census, and his occupation in the 1880 census is listed as "transportation" while the 1900 census lists him as a railroad clerk, also in Norfolk, where the 1888 city directory lists his employer as the Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia Air Line.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Howell A. Venable, student 1856-1857

Howell A. Venable was a civilian doctor who was contracted in May of 1862 to work at General Hospital No. 2 in Lynchburg, VA as Acting Assistant Surgeon for $80 per month. By January 1863, he was contracted at the fee of $100 per month. Venable was later appointed from Texas by the Confederate Congress as assistant surgeon in the Confederate Provisional Navy on September 6, 1864. Howell served on the CSS Sampson in 1864 and was attached to the 2nd Bridgade of Semmes' Naval Brigade in April of 1865. He was paroled at Greensboro, NC on April 26, 1865. Venable was one of the founding members of the Medical Society of Virginia in November, 1870.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Pittman R. Venable, Class of 1858

Pittman R. Venable enlisted on May 31, 1862 as a corporal in Company E of the Virginia 2nd Light Artillery. He later served as a corporal in Compnay E of the 22nd Virginia Infantry Battalion. He was hospitalized for unknown reasons in Farmville, VA in July of 1862. Venable was killed May 3, 1863 at Chancellorsville, VA.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Thomas Jefferson Koger, class of 1838 (A.B.) and 1851 (A.M.)

Thomas J. Koger was a prominent Methodist minister in Missippi at the outbreak of the war. He served as both chaplain and captain of Company D, 41st Missippi Infantry.  He was killed in battle at Perryville, KY on October 8, 1862.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

John Bennett Merritt, student 1857-1861

John Bennett Merritt, brother of Henry Embrey Merritt and William Thomas Merritt, enlisted in the 6th VA Infantry, Company G as a private on April 15, 1862.  He was wounded at the Second Battle of Manassas on August 30, 1862. He died in a hospital in Warrenton, VA on September 21, 1862.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Alexander Mallory, Jr., Class of 1858

Alexander Mallory, son a wealthy farmer and merchant, was a school teacher in Brunswick County when he was conscripted into the army in 1862. He enlisted on February 22, 1862 as a sergeant in Company I of the 12th Virginia Infantry. He served only until October 7, 1862, when he provided a substitute, William Goode Talley, who was taken prisoner and died February 4,1865 at Elmira, NY.

After the war, Mallory again taught school, and was superintendent of the Brunswick County public schools in 1870-1871. Mallory didn't outlive his war substitute for long; he died of consumption on July 25, 1872 and is buried in Brunwick County, VA in the Raney-Mallory Family Cemetery.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Thomas B. Maclin, student 1859-1861

Thomas B. Maclin, brother of John Henry Maclin, originally enlisted as a private in the Brunswick Guards, Company A of the 5th Battalion VA Infantry on May 5, 1861, later moving to Company H of the 53rd VA Infantry. He was wounded on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg, PA. Maclin was wounded again during the retreat from Petersburg, and died in Dinwiddie County between April 5 and April 9, 1865.