William Norwood Branch, student 1851-1852

Branch, who resided in Louisburg, Franklin County, NC, enlisted on June 6, 1861 as 1st sergeant in Co. B of the 1st NC Cavalry. He contracted typhoid and was sent to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond VA, where he was admitted on Oct. 22, 1861. Records indicate that he was transferred to Dr. Chamberlaine (or Chamberlaynes), where he later died of typhoid pneumonia.

The William J. Branch family bible, held at the State Library of North Carolina, includes the statement that "Wm. Norwood Branch died the 24th November 1861 in the City of Richmond in the Service of his Country as a Soldier."

John Howlett, student 1841-1842

John Howlett was a wealthy physician and farmer in Chesterfield, VA prior to the war. He was granted his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in April 1847.

Doctor Howlett, although he did not bear arms for either army, will be forever associated with the Civil War due to the naming of the Howlett Line, the Confederate earthworks extending from the James River to the Appomattox River that were named after Howlett's home which was located at the north end of the line. Ironically, the fort located near the Howlett house, originally known as Fort Howlett, was designated Battery Dantzler shortly after the death of another R-MC alumnus, Col. Olin M. Dantzler of South Carolina, who died in battle in June 1864 during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. The house was eventually destroyed by Union gunboat fire from the James River, and Howlett's farm property was badly damaged.

Howlett took the oath of allegiance on April 12, 1865, and in his July 24, 1865 application for amnesty he indicated his property before the war might have been valued as high as $100,000. He stated that he was left with "nothing but the naked ground, so much cut up by fortifications as to be of comparatively little value." He was granted amnesty but received no compensation. He died bankrupt on November 5, 1870.

Albertus Chambers Spain, student 1837-1838

Spain attended South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) after leaving R-MC, graduating in 1841. He became a lawyer in Columbia, SC and later in Sumter, SC, and served as 1st lieutenant in Captain Sumter's company of the First Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry during the Mexican American War. He carried the honorific title "major" afterwards. Spain practiced law and served in the SC legislature in the years before the Civil War.

An ardent secessionist and slaveholder who publicly advocated southern rights from the late 1840s, Spain represented Sumter, SC as a delegate at the state's 1860 Secession Convention, signing the Ordinance of Secession of South Carolina. Spain was appointed to represent the state of SC at Arkansas' secession convention in March of 1861. Spain moved to Darlington, SC during the war. In March 1865 after Union soldiers had passed through Darlington and then Confederates returned, one of Spain's slaves, Amy Spain, who had declared herself free and taken household goods, was arrested and hung. Amy was immortalized in an article in the September 30, 1865 issue of Harper's Weekly.

After the war, he continued to practice law in Darlington, SC. Spain died in 1881 and was buried in the "old Methodist cemetery" in Darlington. A marker for him is located in Darlington's Grove Hill Cemetery, which was opened a number of years later. It is unknown whether he was re-interred or remains in his original burial place.

Alexander Watts Massey, student 1853-1854

Massey, variantly spelled Massie, was a farmer in Spotsylvania County, VA at the beginning of the war. He was conscripted as a private in the Camp Guard Battalion, VA Conscripts, on October 1, 1862. In early 1863, he was serving at the Camp of Instruction at Camp Lee, VA.  Massie had been promoted to sergeant by the summer of 1864, and served at Camp Lee until the war's end.

After the war, he returned to Spotsylvania County, where he was a farmer, teacher, county surveyor, and served on the county school board. Massey died on Feb. 13, 1909, and is buried in the Smith-Massey Cemetery in Post Oak, Spotsylvania County, VA.

Robert Whiting, student 1862-1863

Whiting was conscripted into the Confederate army, serving in an unknown capacity, and surrendered at Lynchburg, VA on April 14, 1865.

In 1871, he was a telegraph operator in Petersburg, VA. Whiting graduated  from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA On March 1, 1875 and was commissioned in the U.S. Navy as an Assistant Surgeon. On December 17, 1878 he became Passed Assistant Surgeon, and he was promoted to Surgeon on December 15, 1891. Whiting retired due to disability in February 1897, and he died on March 5, 1897. He is buried in Asheville, NC in Riverside Cemetery. The Whiting River and Whiting Point in Alaska were named for him in 1888 while he served on a ship during an exploration voyage.

Jesse C. Mundy, student 1859-1861

Mundy, son of a wealthy farmer from Amherst County, VA, enlisted as a private in Co. A of the 11th VA Infantry on July 16, 1861. He was absent due to illness in early 1862. No further record has been found and his fate is unknown.

Thomas M. Crowder, student 1849-1850

After leaving R-MC, Crowder attended the University of Virginia from 1850-1853. In September of 1853, Crowder became editor of the Daily Southern Argus, a newspaper in Norfolk, VA, which he ran until May 1, 1855 . Sometime after this, he moved to Brunswick, MO, where he became a teacher and principal in Bluff High School, a school which he founded. Crowder served as 2nd lieutenant in the 3rd Infantry of the Missouri Confederate Volunteers.  In a history of the 1st and 2nd  Missouri Confederate brigades published in 1878, Crowder is listed as "died in Chariton Co. since war."

Robert Jefferson Jones, student 1857-1858

Jones, from Person County, NC, enlisted as a private on July 30, 1861 in Co. D of the 13th NC Infantry. He was taken prisoner on September 15, 1862 at Williamsport, MD and sent to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE. He was sent to Aiken's Landing, VA for exchange on October 2, 1862 and granted a medical furlough. Jones was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, VA on May 1, 1863. He was paroled on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA.

After the war, he returned to Person County, NC. By 1880, he had moved to Pittsylvania County, VA. Jones died September 15, 1902 in Danville, VA. He is buried in Danville's Highland Burial Park.

James B. Young Jones, student 1850-1851

Jones, who appears in the R-MC matriculation record and the 1850 census as James B. Jones and later goes by James Y(oung) Jones (he was referred to by a former family slave and children's nurse as "Little Mass' Batt"), graduated in 1855 from Jefferson Medical College in Pennsylvania but did not practice medicine. In the late-1850s he visited Europe attempting unsuccessfully  to obtain a military commission in the French army during the Franco-Austrian War of 1859. At the start of the Civil War, Jones raised a company and became its captain, Co. E of the 1st Battalion VA Infantry, also known as the Irish Brigade. In February 1862, he was absent on sick leave. Jones was wounded in the face with both of his eyes and the bridge of his nose shot away on March 23, 1862 during the First Battle of Kernstown, VA, the first engagement in which his company was involved. He was left on the field and taken captive, dying in a Union field hospital in Winchester, VA on March 25, 1862. Jones was buried in Winchester, VA in Stonewall Confederate Cemetery. 

Atwell C. Jones, student 1850-1851

Jones was a farmer in Buckingham County, VA when he enlisted in 1862 in Co. E of the 3rd Regiment VA Light Artillery, regiment that was dissolved and the men reallocated to different regiments. It is likely he served in local defense. Although records of his service do not appear to have survived, his 1902 application for a pension and his widow's 1909 pension application both state that he served 3 years in Captain Henry Spencer's company until surrendering in Richmond, VA. The applications are supported by prominent citizens in Buckingham County, VA and by the local Confederate veterans organization.

He returned to farming in Buckingham County, VA after the war. Jones died in September, 1908.