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[Page 46]
      Armistead, Lewis Addison, born at New Bern, North Carolina, February 18, 1817, son of Gen. Walker Keith Armistead. Graduated from United States Military Academy, 1839, commissioned second lieutenant, Sixth United States Infantry; March, 1844, promoted to first lieutenant; served in Mexican war, and brevetted captain for gallantry at Contreras and Cherubusco, and major for services at Molino del Rey. Continued in army, serving against Indians, and promoted to captain, 1855. In March, 1861, major C. S. A.; later became colonel of Fifty-seventh Regiment; April 1, 1862, promoted brigadier-general. At Seven Pines, distinguished for personal bravery; at Malvern Hill led charge under personal order of Gen. R. E. Lee. Subsequently commanded brigades under R. H. Anderson and Pickett; September 6, 1862, appointed provost marshal general of the army. At Gettysburg led his brigade of Pickett's division in the historic charge, scaled the works, and fell wounded into the hands of the enemy, but not until he had planted his colors over their fortifications. He died from the effects of his wound, July 4, 1863.

[Page 46]
      Ashby, Turner, born at Rose Hill, Fauquier county, Virginia, 1824, grandson of Capt. John Ashby, of the revolution. Was captain of volunteers at time of John Brown raid, and aided in capture of Harper's Ferry. He commanded Confederate post at Point of Rocks; was soon promoted to lieutenant-colonel and colonel; later was assigned to command of cavalry in the valley district. He was authorized by war department to recruit cavalry, infantry and heavy artillery, and was commissioned brigadier-general. He played a prominent part in all the operations in the Shenandoah Valley. Near Harrisonburg he led an attack upon the enemy, when his horse was shot under him, and he led his men on foot, when a ball pierced his breast and he fell dead, June 6, 1862. "His daring was proverbial, powers of endurance almost incredible, tone of character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the movements of the enemy." In October, 1866, his body was reinterred in the Stonewall Cemetery at Winchester.

[Page 46]
      Barton, Seth Maxwell, son of Thomas Bowerbank Barton; graduated from United States Military Academy, 1849; as brevet second lieutenant Third Infantry, served at Fort Columbus, New York; promoted second lieutenant, serving in the southwest until 1861, being promoted to captain. He resigned June 11, 1861, to enter the Confederate service; became lieutenant-colonel of third Arkansas Regiment, and participated in operations in West Virginia. Under Gen. E. Kirby Smith he commanded a brigade in East Tennessee. He subsequently was made prisoner with the Vicksburg garrison, but was soon exchanged. He was given command of Armistead's brigade, Pickett's division, and served in North Carolina and on the James river; later he commanded a brigade for the defense of Richmond under Gen. Ewell, and was under Lee at the surrender at Appomattox.

[Page 47]
      Beall, John Yates, born at Charlestown, Jefferson county, Virginia, January 1, 1835. He was a member of a highly respectable family, and said to be heir apparent to the English Lord Egelby. He was educated at the University of Virginia, and trained for the law, but never practiced. He was the owner of a large plantation and more than one hundred slaves. He entered the Confederate Regiment, was wounded in action, and went to Canada. While there he conceived a plan for the liberation of the Confederate prisoners at Johnson's Island, and, returning South, was commissioned acting master in the navy, but was not assigned to a vessel On his own initiative he engaged in privateering operations in Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac river, and in November, 1863, was captured, and put into irons at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. This led to reprisals, and he was exchanged in May of the following year. Resubmitting to the Confederate authorities his plans for the Johnson's Island project, and after meeting with approval, he returned to Canada, and set about the undertaking in his own way. On September 28, 1864, with three chosen men, he boarded the steamboat Philo Parsons, on Lake Erie, ostensibly to take a pleasure trip. In the afternoon, when the boat had nearly reached Kelly's Island, about six miles from the Ohio shore, the men drew revolvers on the officers in charge of the boat, and imprisoning them in the cabins, took possession. They threw freight overboard, examined the ship's papers, took the money from the clerk's offices and ran the boat to Middle Bass Island, where the passengers were put ashore. Soon after this, a freight and passenger steamboat, the Island Queen, came alongside, and was promptly seized and sunk. As soon as the news reached the outside world, officers were sent to arrest Beale and his party. He escaped capture for a time by taking up his residence on the American side of the Suspension Bridge, and by disguising his personal appearance. He made observations on the defences of the frontiers, and was the instigator of a foray in St. Albans, Vermont, which was accompanied with incendiarism and loss of life. He had many sympathizers in the South, with whom he was in communication. He was finally arrested on December 16, 1864, at Suspension Bridge, New York. The charges against him were violation of the laws of war by seizing the Philo Parsons and the Island Queen, for "undertaking to carry on irregular and unlawful warfare as a guerrilla, without lawful authority and for unlawful purposes," and for acting as a spy. On these he was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged. An effort to save Beale was made by President Davis, who issued a proclamation assuming responsibility for the act, and declaring that the seizure of the vessels had been effected by his authority. But this could not help one who had ventured into the enemy's country and made war while wearing no badge of service. He was hanged on Governor's Island, New York, February 24, 1865. His courageous bearing at his trial and execution were admired even by his judges and executioners.
NOTE BY THE EDITOR. — Daniel B. Lucas vigorously defended John Yates Beale from the charge of being a spy, and much indignation was felt and expressed in the South at his execution. There is a story that John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln because the latter failed to carry out a promise to pardon Beale, who was Booth's intimate friend.

[Pages 47-48]
      Bledsoe, Albert Taylor, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, November 9, 1809, son of Moses Bledsoe and Sophia (Taylor) Bledsoe, his wife. He was graduated, 1830, from the United States Military Academy, where he had Robert E. Lee as a classmate and personal friend. After two years service on the plains, he resigned from the army. He then began to study law under his uncle, Samuel Taylor, in Richmond, Virginia, but forsook it to accept a position as a tutor in Kenyon (Ohio) College. After two years he took up the study of theology, and took orders in the Episcopal church, and became an assistant of Bishop Smith, of Kentucky, but conscientious scruples as to infant baptism led him to leave the ministry, though he remained a zealous churchman. He then went to Springfield, Illinois, where he was admitted to the bar and practiced in the same courts with Lincoln and Douglas, and then in Washington City. in 1848, he became a professor in the University of Mississippi, leaving it in 1854 to take a chair in the University of Virginia, and where he remained until the breaking out of the civil war. He was at first a strong Union man, but when Virginia seceded he changed his views. Commissioned colonel, he was soon made assistant secretary of war. When he returned, Jefferson Davis was imprisoned, and in 1866, Col. Bledsoe published his work, "Is Davis a traitor; or was Secession a Constitutional Right?" He went to Baltimore the same year, and conducted the Louisa School. At the same time he edited the "Southern Review," which was afterward made the organ of the Methodist Episcopal church, with which Col. Bledsoe connected himself, and some years later became one of its ministers. He published several scholarly works. He died suddenly, at Alexandria, Virginia, December 8, 1877.

[Pages 48-49]
      Brooke, John Mercer, born December 18, 1826, son of Gen. George Mercer Brooke and Lucy Thomas, his wife. He was born at Tampa Bay, Florida, where his father, a distinguished officer of the United States army, was on duty. From his early youth he became familiar with army life, and he received such schooling as officers could then provide their children at army posts, his training being principally at Fort Howard, Wisconsin, one of the extreme northern stations. At the age of fifteen he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1847, having previously seen some service as midshipman on board the Delaware. He served on the Coast Survey, 1849-50, and was stationed at the Naval Observatory, 1851-53. He was assigned to the duty of surveying the route between California and China, and with special reference to the islands in the Pacific ocean. His deep-sea soundings measured from 6,000 to 20,400 feet. It was then that he put to practical use the deep-sea sounding apparatus, which was so useful when the submarine telegraph cable came to be laid, and in recognition of his services to science, he received from King William I, of Prussia, the gold science medal of the Academy of Berlin. In 1861 he resigned his commission, and entered the service of the state of Virginia. His inventive genius was of inestimable value to the struggling Confederacy, which was particularly weak in naval resources. One of his most important achievements, and which gave to the navies of the world a hitherto unknown offensive device, was the submerged bow on ship construction, which came to be known as the ram, and which he applied to the Confederate States ship Virginia, formerly the Merrimac. This invention was duly recognized by one of the first letters patent issued by the Confederate States government. In 1863 Capt. Brooke was made chief of ordnance and hydrography. Among his innovations, introduced by experiments with a thirteen-inch Blakley gun, was placing the firing charge wholly in front of the chamber, lessening the initial tension of the gasses. This met with some ridicule, but Capt. Brooke successfully demonstrated his theory, and it came to be adopted by the navies of the world, to the overthrow of a former error, and acceptance of the "air-space" as one of the most important improvements in the use of ordnance. The name of Capt. Brooke is famous for the beforementioned achievements — the deep-sea sounding apparatus, the submerged ship-bow, and the air-space in artillery. Immediately after the war, Capt. Brooke was called to a professorship in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington — a position which he adorned until incapacitated by age and infirmities, and he was retired as professor emeritus. He married (first) Mary Elizabeth Garnett, (second) Kate Corbin Pendleton.

[Page 49]
      Chilton, Robert Hall, son of William and Sarah Powell Chilton, of Westmoreland county, Virginia, born about 1816; graduated from United States Military Academy, 1837; was second lieutenant of First Dragoons, he served on frontier duty, and was promoted to first lieutenant; served in Mexican war, promoted to captain, and brevetted major for gallantry at Buena Vista. He subsequently served in the pay department until 1861, when he resigned and entered the Confederate service as lieutenant-colonel in the adjutant-general's department, and was promoted to colonel. He was called to the staff of Gen. R. E. Lee as chief-of-staff, Army of Northern Virginia. Promoted to brigadier-general, he served until April 1, 1864, when he resigned. He made his home in Columbus, Georgia, where he died February 18, 1879.

[Page 49]
      Cocke, Philip St. George, born in Surry county, Virginia, in 1808, son of Gen. John Hartwell Cocke. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1832, and as second lieutenant of artillery was stationed at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1834 he resigned, and lived as a planter in Virginia and Mississippi, wrote agricultural essays, and for some years was president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society. He was prominent in Virginia councils in April, 1861, and was appointed brigadier-general in the state service, and given a command on the Potomac river. In May he recruited a large force. As colonel he commanded a brigade under Beauregard, and also served at Blackburn's Ford. He rendered efficient service at the stone bridge at Manassas. He was promoted to brigadier-general, but returned home, shattered in body and mind, and died December 26, 1861.

[Pages 49-50]
      Colston, Raleigh Edward, born in Paris, France, October 31, 1825, son of Raleigh Edward Colston and Elizabeth (Marshall) Colston, his wife; his grandmother was sister of Chief Justice John Marshall. He came to the United States when seventeen years old. He graduated in 1846 from the Virginia Military Institute, and was a professor there until April, 1861, when he marched to Richmond in command of the cadets. In May he was made colonel of the Sixteenth Virginia Infantry, and given command of a brigade on the James river, and subsequently commanded it at Yorktown, Williamsburg and Seven Pines. After being invalided for a time, he commanded a brigade in southern Virginia and North Carolina, and later at Petersburg. After Chancellorsville, he commanded a brigade in Jackson's old division, until May, 1863, when he took duty in Richmond, and in October was given command at Savannah, Georgia. In April, 1864, he was again in command at Petersburg, and in July at Lynchburg, where he remained until the surrender. Subsequently he conducted a military academy at Wilmington, North Carolina, and from 1873 to 1879 was in the service of the Khedive of Egypt, and conducted two important exploring expeditions to the Soudan; in the last named, he was paralyzed, and was carried on a litter for hundreds of miles. Returning home, he was engaged in literary work, and from 1882 to 1894 held a position in the war department at Washington, D. C. He died at the Soldiers' Home, Richmond, July 29, 1896.

[Page 50]
      Corse, Montgomery D., was born at Alexandria, Virginia, March 14, 1816. He received an academic and business education, and served in the Mexican war as a captain in the First Virginia Regiment. He was with the gold-seekers in California, returning in 1856 and engaging in banking in Alexandria. In 1860 he organized the "Old Dominion Rifles," at Alexandria, and later became major. He was later colonel of the Seventeenth Virginia Regiment, and in Longstreet's (later Kemper's) brigade, took part in the battles of Manassas, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines and the Seven Days. He was wounded at the Second Manassas, and again at Boonsboro. In 1862 he was promoted brigadier-general and given command of Pickett's old brigade. He took part in the Pennsylvania campaign, and in 1863-64 operated in southwest Virginia and east Tennessee. Later he was with the forces opposing /Butler on the James river; shared the service of Pickett's division at Petersburg, Richmond, Dinwiddie Court House and Five Forks, and ended his military career with honor at Sailor's Creek. After the surrender, he was confined at Fort Warren until August, 1865. He returned to Alexandria, and engaged in banking. He was seriously injured in the fall of a part of the capitol at Richmond, causing a partial blindness. He died February 11, 1895.

[Pages 50-51]
      Dearing, James, was born in Campbell county, Virginia, April 25, 1840, died in Lynchburg in April, 1865. He was a great-grandson of Col. Charles Lynch, of revolutionary fame, who gave his name to the summary method of administering justice, now known as "Lynch law," through his rough-and-ready way of treating the tories. He was graduated at Hanover, Virginia, Academy, and was appointed a cadet in the United States Military Academy, but resigned in 1861 to join the Confederate army when Virginia passed the ordinance of secession. He was successively lieutenant of the Washington artillery of New Orleans, captain of Latham's battery, major and commander of Denny's artillery battalion, and colonel of a cavalry regiment from North Carolina, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general for gallantry at the battle of Plymouth. He participated in the principal engagements between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. On the retreat of the Confederate forces from Petersburg to Appomattox Court House, he was mortally wounded near Farmville in a singular encounter with Brig.-Gen. Theodore Read, of the Federal army. The two generals met on April 5, at the head of their forces, on opposite sides of the Appomattox, at High Bridge, and a duel with pistols ensued. Gen. Read was shot dead, but Gen. Dearing lingered until a few days after the surrender of Lee, when he died in the Old City Hotel at Lynchburg, Virginia.

[Page 51]
      De Lagnel, Julius Adolphus, a native of New Jersey, was appointed to the United States army from Virginia, in 1847, as second lieutenant, Second United States Infantry, and promoted to first lieutenant in 1849. In 1861 he resigned, and was commissioned captain of artillery, C. S. A. He was chief of artillery to Gen. Garnett, in West Virginia, and distinguished himself at Rich Mountain, fighting a gun alone; the enemy was upon him, but he made his escape. On his return to service he was made major of artillery, and declined a commission as brigadier-general. He afterward served in the ordnance department at Richmond.

[Page 51]
      Dimmock, Charles, was born in Massachusetts in 1800, died in Richmond, Virginia, October 27, 1863. He was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1821, assigned to the First Artillery, and served as assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1821-22. He was attached to the artillery school at Fort Monroe in 1825-26 and 1828-29, being adjutant of the school in the last named year. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1828, was assistant quartermaster in 1831-36, and superintended operations at Delaware breakwater in 1831-33. He was made captain on August 6, 1836, but resigned on September 30, and became a civil engineer in the south, being employed on many important railroads, and in 1837-38 in the location of a United States military road to Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1843-47 he was director of the James river and Kanawha canal. He was captain of Virginia militia in 1839-40, lieutenant-colonel in 1841-42, and superintendent of the state armory in 1843-61. He was a member of the Richmond city council in 1850, 1854 and 1858, and at the beginning of the civil war entered the Confederate service, became brigadier-general and was chief of ordnance department of Virginia. He died October 27, 1863.

[Pages 51-52]
      Early, Jubal Anderson, born in Franklin county, Virginia, November 3, 1816. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1837; in 1838 promoted to first lieutenant of artillery, resigned and engaged in law practice. He was a member of the house of delegates, 1841-42, and commonwealth's attorney, 1842 to 1852, except during 1847-48, when he served in the Mexican war as major of volunteers. In 1861, as a member of the Virginia convention, he opposed secession, but went with his state. As colonel of the Twenty-fourth Virginia Regiment he commanded a brigade at Manassas, and was promoted to brigadier-general. He was wounded at Williamsburg, in leading a charge. In the Manassas campaign of 1862 he commanded a brigade of Ewell's division, and he commanded the division at Sharpsburg and at Fredericksburg. In January, 1863, he was promoted to major-general. He especially distinguished himself in the Pennsylvania campaign and at Gettysburg. In the opening engagement in the Wilderness, he temporarily commanded Hill's corps, to the saving of Lee's flank, and defeated Burnside at Spottsylvania Court House on May 31, 1863, he was promoted to lieutenant-general. He defeated Hunter at Lynchburg, and Wallace at Monocacy. Marching upon Washington, he was just about to assault when the city was reinforced by two Federal army corps. He was then engaged in the valley, where he made a stubborn resistance against Sheridan in a series of desperate engagements. When Lee surrendered, he rode on horseback to Texas, hoping to find a Confederate force still holding out, then he went to Mexico, and then to Canada. Returning home, he resumed his law practice, but in his later years lived most of the time in New Orleans. He died at Lynchburg, Virginia, March 2, 1894.

[Page 52]
      Echols, John, born at Lynchburg, Virginia, March 20, 1823, son of Joseph Echols, a native of Halifax county, Virginia, and of Elizabeth F. Lambeth, his wife, daughter of Meredith Lambeth; educated at Virginia Military Institute, Washington College, and Harvard College. He studied law and practiced with much success in Monroe county, West Virginia. He took a prominent part in the Virginia convention of 1861, but on the passage of the ordinance of secession, resigned, and was appointed by the convention colonel of volunteers and recruited forces in the vicinity of Staunton. As lieutenant-colonel of the Confederate army he commanded the Twenty-seventh Virginia Regiment at the first Manassas, in the Stonewall brigade; promoted to colonel, and served under Jackson in Shenandoah Valley. He was wounded at Kernstown, was promoted to brigadier-general, and commanded a brigade in the army of Western Virginia. In 1864 his service was in the Shenandoah Valley; in April, 1865, in southwest Virginia, he received news of the surrender at Appomattox, and at once set out to join Johnston's army. Subsequently he accompanied President to Augusta, Georgia; after the war he resumed law practice in Staunton, bore a useful part in restoring Virginia to its proper relations with the general government, and as a member of the Virginia legislature. He died at the residence of his son, State Senator Echols, in Staunton, May 24, 1896.
["The Caperton Family," Bernard Caperton, 1973, Charlottesville, VA, says that he married (first) Mary Jane Caperton, b. May 23, 1823, d. October 6, 1874, daughter of Hugh and Jane (Erskine) Caperton, and had six children, four dying young. He married (second) Mary Helen Reid nee Cochran, but had no children by her.]

[Pages 52-53]
      Ewell, Richard Stoddert, born at Georgetown, D. C., February 8, 1817, son of Dr. Thomas Ewell and Elizabeth Stoddert, his wife. He was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840, and as lieutenant served on the frontier until 1845, and was then on coast duty for a year. In the Mexican war he took part in the battles of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. He was brevetted captain of dragoons, and after the Mexican war was on frontier duty until May 7, 1861, when he resigned. He was made lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, and promoted to brigadier-general, June 17. At the first battle of Manassas he commanded a brigade. In October he was promoted to major-general, and commanded a division under Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. he defeated Banks at winchester, and Fremont at Cross Keys. As senior major-general under Jackson he took a prominent part in the battles before Richmond, and in the subsequent operations until Groveton, August 28, 1862, when he received a wound which necessitated amputation of the leg. He returned to the army in May, 1863, with the rank of lieutenant-general, and succeeded to the command of the Second Corps, when Stonewall Jackson fell at Chancellorsville. He cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Federals, and was engaged in the invasion of Pennsylvania, and especially distinguished himself at Gettysburg, and again in the Wilderness, where at Spottsylvania his horse was shot under him, and he was so injured by the fall that he was obliged to leave the field. Later he commanded the Richmond defenses, and, after the evaculation was taken prisoner, and for four months was confined at Fort Warren. He died in Tennessee, January 25, 1872.

[Page 53]
      Garland, Samuel, Jr., born in Lynchburg, Virginia, December 16, 1830, son of Maurice H. and Caroline M. (Garland) Garland, and grandson of Spottswood Garland, who was clerk of Nelson county, Virginia, for so many years; attended a classical school in his native county for one year, then entered the Virginia Military Institute, where he helped to establish a literary society, and entered the University of Virginia in 1849, remained two years, graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Law; returned to Lynchburg, and engaged in the practice of his profession; entered the Confederate army at the beginning of the war between the states, having been a captain in the Home Guard of Lynchburg; was promoted to the colonelcy of the Third Virginia Regiment; was made brigadier-general and given command of four North Carolina regiments; his command was heavily engaged at Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, and Second Manassas, and was the first to cross the river in the campaign into Maryland; while holding the pass near Boonsborough, just prior to the battle of Sharpsburg, his men were driven back, and in his effort to rally them he naturally exposed himself to the hottest fire, and though he succeeded in his efforts, was mortally wounded; his remains were brought back to Lynchburg, where he was buried, September 19, 1862; he married, in 1856, Eliza Campbell Meem, daughter of John G. Meem, Esq.

[Page 53]
      Garnett, Richard Brooke, nephew of James Mercer Garnett (q. v.), and Robert Selden Garnett (q. v.); born in Virginia, in 1819; graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1841. He entered the army as second lieutenant, and served in the Florida war, ans subsequently in the west. He was made first lieutenant in 1857, and later captain. He aided in quelling the Kansas disturbances in 1856-57; was engaged in the Utah expedition. He entered the Confederate service as major of artillery in 1861, and was promoted to brigadier-general the same year. He served in the Shenandoah Valley under Jackson, and at the battle of Kernstown commanded the Stonewall brigade. During and after the Maryland campaign he commanded Pickett's brigade, which he finally led at Gettysburg, where he fell dead, shot from his horse in the midst of action. He died July 3, 1863.