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.