Oliver Perry Williams, Class of 1841

Williams was a wealthy lawyer and planter in Colleton County, SC at the beginning of the war, and he had served in the South Carolina legislature. He served as captain of the local reserve unit, Co. K of the 11th Regiment South Carolina Reserves from Nov. 1, 1862 until its dissolution in February 1863. He requested on Jan. 24, 1864 to be appointed an agent for the Confederacy rather than serve in the army. Williams supplied significant amounts of goods to the Confederate army in 1863 and 1864.

After the war, he continued to practice law and to farm in Colleton County, SC, where he died on April 28, 1881. He is buried at Pon Pon Chapel Cemetery, also known as Burnt Church Burial Ground, in Colleton County, SC.

Christopher Dudley Hill, Class of 1838

Hill, a wealthy planter in Duplin County, NC,  is listed as colonel of the 31st regiment of the North Carolina Militia in an 1846 report by North Carolina's Adjuntant General, and appears as "Col. C. D. Hill" in numerous newspaper and directory publications during his entire life. Hill provided the Confederate Army with a large amount of supplies in 1863 and 1864, and in late 1864 was serving as the acting enrolling officer for Duplin County. Hill took the oath of allegiance on May 24, 1865. His application for presidential pardon, dated June 27, 1865, claims that he "was strongly opposed to the breaking up of the Union and gave no aid to the Confederate Government until in the fall of 1863..." when he was conscripted into the army, however, an April 25, 1861 article in the Wilmington Journal shows that he was elected one of three vice presidents of the newly formed States Rights Association for Duplin County.

Hill continued to be a prominent citizen of Duplin County, NC after the war, where he served as a trustee of Faison's high school, as county commissioner, and as a justice of the peace. He died on August 1, 1874.

John McKendree Jeffries, student 1856-1857

Jeffries (variantly spelled Jefferies), was the son of a wealthy farmer in Cumberland County, VA when he enlisted on May 14, 1861 as a private in Co. G of the 3rd VA Cavalry, the Cumberland Light Dragoons. He was promoted to corporal on March 20, 1862, and by July 1863, he is listed on company rolls as a sergeant. Jeffries was wounded in the hand and his horse was killed by artillery fire at Funkstown, MD on July 10, 1863. He was taken first to the General Hospital in Charlottesville, VA on July 15, 1863 and then sent to the General Hospital in Scottsville, VA, where he was admitted on July 16, 1863. He applied for an extension to his medical leave and was examined at the General Hospital in Farmville, VA on Jan. 2, 1864, but the extension was denied. On March 22, 1864, he applied for an examination for retirement and after examination was listed on April 4, 1864 as "fit for light duty in field." He was paroled on April 28, 1865 at Farmville, VA.

After the war, Jeffries returned to Cumberland County, VA, where he was a farmer in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. He died November 9, 1891.

William L. Skinner, student 1856-1857

Skinner was a student in Warren County, NC at the time of his enlistment as a private in Co. F of the 12th NC Infantry on April 18, 1861. On June 25, 1861 he was made commissary sergeant and then transferred into Co. K of the 14th NC Infantry. He transferred into and was promoted to ordnance sergeant for the 56th NC Infantry on September 15, 1862. On May 20, 1863, records indicate he was discharged for promotion but no further record of him has been found at this time, and he disappears from the historical record, with a younger brother inheriting the family plantation, Linden Hall, in Warren County, NC.

James E. Ballou, student 1857-1858

Ballou did not officially enlist in a military company but was killed while fighting in the Battle of Ball's Bluff near Leesburg, VA on October 21, 1861. Clement A. Evans writes in volume 3 of his Confederate Military History that Ballou "...was on business at Memphis, Tenn., when the war began, and on his way to Virginia fell in with a Mississippi regiment bound for Manassas, which he joined. At the battle of Ball's Bluff, his first encounter with the enemy, he was shot through the body and killed." The Mississippi regiment he fought with was the 13th MS Infantry.

Richard H. B. Day, student 1852-1853

Day was principal of Buckhannon Institure in Buckhannon, VA (now WV) in 1860. He enlisted on August 23, 1863 as a private in Co. B of the 46th Battalion VA Cavalry, which later became the 26th VA Cavalry. He was detailed as a nurse at the General Hospital in Charlottesville, VA on September 17, 1863. During his time in Charlottesville,Day attended medical school at the University of Virginia in 1864.

Dr. Day died of tuberculosis on Jan. 22, 1871 and is buried in Washington, D.C. in Congressional Cemetery.

Robert Stapleton Ellis, Jr., student 1857-1858

Ellis graduated from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond on March 1, 1861with an M.D. He enlisted on July 9, 1861 as a 2nd lieutenant in Co. C of the 56th VA Infantry. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on May 3, 1862. Ellis was killed during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.

Joseph H. Edmonson, student 1859-1860

Edmonson enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry on August 14, 1861. He was wounded near Boonsboro, MD on July 8, 1863. Edmonson was wounded again when he was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, VA on May 6, 1864 with a gunshot wound to the right leg.

After the war, Edmonson returned to Mecklenburg County, VA and farmed. He was a farmer in Dinwiddie County, VA in the 1880 census.  In 1885, he moved to Bedford County, PA.  By 1900, he was a coal miner in Bedford County, PA and in 1910, he was running a hotel in the town of Everett. In 1920 he was retired in living in Altoona, PA and in 1930, he was residing in Bedford County, PA. He died on Feb. 27, 1932 and is buried in Grandview Cemetery in Altoona, PA.

Owen A. Waddell, student 1854-1855

Waddell, who had attended the University of North Carolina prior to coming to R-MC, was an attorney in Warrensburg, MO at the beginning of the war. He joined Co. E of the 3rd Regiment of. the Missouri State Guards as a 3rd lieutenant on June 20, 1861. The company later became Co. A of the 1st Battn MO Infantry and Co. A of the 3rd MO Infantry, and Waddell was elected captain on Dec 2, 1861. He was promoted to major of the 5th MO Infantry on Sept. 1, 1862. Waddell was captured on July 4, 1863 at Vicksburg, MS and paroled on July 16, 1863 after taking the oath to lay down arms. He was exchanged near Mobile, AL on August, 1863.  returning to his regiment. Waddell was wounded in the stomach while leading a charge and waving the regimental flag in battle on October 5, 1864 at the Battle of Allatoona Pass in Bartow County, GA, and died the following day.

William Francis Jordan, student 1860-1861

Jordan, from Isle of Wight County, enlisted on Feb. 28, 1862 as a private in Co. E of the 5th VA Cavalry, later Co. G of the 13th VA Cavalry. He was hospitalized in Culpeper, VA on Oct. 27, 1862 with a fever. For most of November and December 1862, he was absent due to illness. After his return he was detailed in January 1863 as a courier for General Colston. His horse was killed during action at Brandy Station, VA in October 1863. Jordan was captured on August 16, 1864 on the Charles City Road during the Second Battle of Deep Bottom, VA and sent from City Point, VA to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD on Aug. 22, 1864. He was paroled and exchanged at Aiken's Landing, VA on March 15, 1865. Jordan was admitted to General Hospital No. 9 in Richmond, VA on March 18, 1865 and sent to Camp lee on March 19. He was paroled again on April 25, 1865 in Isle of Wight County, VA.

After the war, he remained in Isle of Wight County, VA where he was a wholesale grocer in 1870. He was a dry goods merchant in Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, VA when he died on Dec. 6, 1880. He is buried in Smithfield's Saint Luke's Cemetery.

Edward Trueblood Hardy, A.B. 1846 and A.M. 1849

Hardy practised law in Washington, D.C. in the late 1840s but was  a wealthy merchant in the 1850 and 1860 censuses living in Norfolk,VA.  Like his brother, Thomas J. Hardy, he was a member of Co. A of the 54th Regiment Virginia Militia. In January 1862, Hardy applied directly to General Henry A. Wise asking to be appointed quarter master of Roanoke Island, but by February 1862, Roanoke Island was in Union hands so no appointment was made.


He was licensed to practise law in New York City in November 1869, moving there from Accomac County, VA. He published at least five plays in New York in the early 1870s: Crowding the Season; Widow Freeheart, Or, The Woman Haters; Clarence Vernon; The Baron of the Crag; and Perplexed (The) Postmaster.  He is listed in the 1880 census as a councilor (lawyer) in Washington, D.C. Hardy died on March 30, 1893 and is buried in Norfolk, VA in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Thomas J. Hardy, student 1842-1843

Hardy entered Randolph-Macon with his brother Edward Trueblood Hardy (A.B. 1846, A.M. 1849). Son of a wealthy merchant in Norfolk, Hardy was a clerk in the 1850 census but in 1852, he received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was a physician in Norfolk, VA at the beginning of the war. Hardy was a member of Co. A of the 54th Regiment Virginia Militia.

After the war, Hardy continued to practice medicine in Norfolk until his death on October 31, 1886. He is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Norfolk, VA.

William Cunningham Yancey, student 1840-1841

Yancey (variant spelling Yancy) was a teacher in Hart County, KY in 1850 and a farmer in Barren County, KY in 1860. He enlisted as a private in Co. C of 2nd KY Cavalry on October 11, 1861. He is listed as a deserter on April 30, 1863. Dates on the various records conflict, but he was taken prisoner in Simpson County, KY on June 25, 1863 and sent to Louisville, KY on July 16. He was moved to Camp Morton in Indiana on August 9, 1863, and then to Camp Douglas in Chicago, IL on August 18, 1863. On March 25, 1864, he took the oath of allegiance. Notes on this indicate he "believes the Jeff Davis Govt is a military despotism. Would rather remain in prison than go back. Wants to take the oath."

After the war, he moved to Tennessee where he was a farmer in Smith County in 1880. Yancey died on August 18, 1885 and is buried in the Roe-Wilson Cemetery in Rock City, TN.

Alfred Buckner Eldridge, student 1847-1848

Eldridge was a farmer in Washington County, TX at the beginning of the war, moving there from Halifax County, VA sometime in the 1850s. He served in Co. E of the 23rd Brigade of Texas State Troops, appearing on a muster roll in September 1863. Family sources state that he was wounded during the war. These sources also place his death in 1865 and his burial place as Prairie Lea Cemetery in Brenham, Washington County, TX.

Joseph H. Cook, student 1847-1848

Cook (variantly spelled Cooke) attended the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1851-1852. although apparently did not complete his medical degree. He was appointed assistant surgeon of the 12th NC regiment on August 31, 1862. In January 1865, he was stationed near Petersburg, VA and assigned to the 30th NC regiment.

He was practicing medicine in his native town of Warrenton, NC in 1870, and by 1880 had moved to Durham, NC where he practiced until his death on Feb. 14, 1888. He is buried in Warrenton's Fairview Cemetery. A Warrenton history indicates he had lived in Alabama prior to 1870.

Edmund Coke Lindsey, student 1844-1845

Lindsey (older brother of Ambrose H. Lindsay, who used the variant spelling of the family name), was a wealthy merchant in Norfolk, VA in 1860. He left Norfolk in 1862 and moved to Burke County, NC. His application for a presidential pardon, dated July 14, 1865, states that he "...was firmly an(sic) earnestly opposed to Secession" and that "...he accepted the position of Commissary or purchasing agent of this [Burke] county" about twelve months earlier. In a letter dated March 8, 1865, Lindsey indicates that he was exempted from service as an agriculturalist, that he had fled from Norfolk rather than take the oath of allegiance to the federal government, and that he had been acting as an agent for nearly two years. He sold supplies to the Confederate army as early as the summer of 1861 through March of 1862 while still in Norfolk. It is also likely that he is the E. C. Lindsay that appears on an undated roll of Co. A of the 54th Regiment VA Militia, a Norfolk unit.

He returned to Norfolk after the war and was a real estate agent. Lindsey died on September 18, 1890 and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Norfolk, VA.

Ambrose Harvey Lindsay, student 1850-1851

Lindsay (variantly spelled Lindsey; younger brother of Edmund Coke Lindsey) was a wealthy farmer living in Norfolk County, VA when he enlisted on August 8, 1861 as a 2nd lieutenant in the Wilson Guards, which eventually became Co. B of the 61st VA Infantry. He was released from service on January 20, 1862 and his letter of resignation, dated January 8th, states "...I have made extensive arrangements to boil salt on the coast of North Carolina and the business requires my personal attention."

Lindsay had extensive land holdings in both North Carolina and Virginia and continued to reside in Norfolk County, VA after the war, and continued to farm. By 1880, he was a merchant and farmer living in Portsmouth. He also served for many years as postmaster in Portsmouth. Lindsay died on January 29, 1906 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth, VA.