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Fontaine, William Morris, born in Louisa county, Virginia,
December 1, 1835, son of James Fontaine and Juliet Morris, his wife, and a descendant of the Rev.
James Fontaine, a Huguenot refugee after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, whose son, the
Rev. Peter Fontaine, came from England to the Virginian colony in 1715, and made his home in King
William county. William Morris Fontaine was reared in the country, and his education was
conducted under private tuition until he entered Hanover Academy in 1854, where he was under the
personal instruction of Prof. Lewis Coleman, subsequently professor of Latin at the University of
Virginia. In this institution he was prepared for entrance to the University of Virginia, at
which he matriculated in 1856, and from which he graduated in the class of 1859 with the degree
of Master of Arts. The following year he entered upon the duties of teaching at Hanover Academy,
and remained there with Major Hilary P. Jones until the outbreak of the civil war, when he
entered the Confederate army. Until 1862 he served as second lieutenant of artillery; during the
next years was second lieutenant of ordnance with Jones' battery of artillery; and from that time
until the close of the war was first lieutenant of ordnance with Anderson's division at
Petersburg, his service determined him to follow scientific lines, and in pursuance of this idea
he went to Europe, and there studied mineralogy and geology at the Royal School of Mines at
Freiberg, Saxony, remaining there 186-70. He was elected professor of chemistry at the University
of West Virginia in 1873, and was the incumbent of this office until 1878. He was elected to the
chair of natural history and geology at the University of Virginia in 1879, and is still its
capable incumbent. He is an author of note in the scientific world, among his publications being:
"Resources of West Virginia, 1876, in which he collaborated with M. F. Maury; "Report PP. Second
Pennsylvania Geologic Survey," 1880, in collaboration with I. C. White; "Monograph VI., United
States Geologic Survey," 1883; "Monograph XV, United States Geologic Survey," 1889; "Bulletin of
the Potomac Formation, United States Geologic Survey;" various papers on geologic subjects and on
fossil botany, which were published in the "American Journal of Science;" in the "Proceedings of
the United States National Museum;" and in the "Annual Reports of the Director of the United
States Geologic Survey." In political opinion he has always been a Democrat, and he is a member
of the Protestant Episcopal church. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, and a
member of the Huguenot Society of America.
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Lamb, William, born in Norfolk, Virginia, September 7, 1835, son of
William Wilson Lamb and Margaret Kerr, his wife. After attending the Norfolk Academy, at the age
of fourteen he became a student in the Rappahannock Military Academy. He was an ardent student of
history and biography. He prepared for college at the Jones School in Bridgeport, Connecticut,
and in 1852 entered William and Mary College, Williamsburg. He had no intention of preparing for
a profession, but hearing such orators as ex-President Tyler and Henry A. Wise gave him a new
inspiration, and, at a following session he took up the law course, and in 1855 was graduated
with the Bachelor of Law degree. Not having attained his majority, he could not be admitted to
the bar, and his father purchased for him a half interest in the "Southern Argus," and he was
occupied with its editorial control until 1861. He had previously joined the Woodis Rifles,
which, with him as captain, went to Harper's Ferry, at the time of the John Brown raid, in 1859.
He now (in April, 1861) became a captain in the Sixth Virginia Regiment, and in October was made
major on the staff of Gen. Joseph R. Anderson, and ordered to Wilmington, North Carolina, where
he subsequently was placed in command of Fort St. Philip, on Cape Fear river. On July 4, 1862, he
was in command of Fort Fisher, and its connecting fortifications. Promoted to colonel of
artillery, he continued in command and kept up a gallant defense until its capture, in 1865. Col.
Lamb then returned to Norfolk, and engaged in various stirring enterprises, representing various
costing and trans-atlantic steamship lines and connected with the Norfolk & Western railroad, and
doing much of the development of the cotton and coal trade of the city. He served for three terms
as mayor, and declined a fourth term. He was several times president of the board of trade and
Chamber of Commerce, president of the Military Organization, manager of the Jackson Orphan
Asylum, president of the Seaman's Friend Society, a member of the board of visitor of the
University of Virginia, rector of the William and Mary College, first president of the Norfolk
Public Library and serving as such until he resigned, and a vestryman of St. Paul's Church. As a
Democrat, he was a presidential elector on the Breckinridge and Lane ticket in 1860, but in 1882
his views as to the protection of American manufacturing and kindred interests brought him to the
support of the Republican party. He was at one time chairman of its state committee, and took an
active part in political campaigns. His services to the community have been many and valuable. He
induced large investments of European as well as of American capital to be made in Virginia, and
established the direct trade between Norfolk and Europe. He aided largely in the establishment of
the present public school system; took an important part in the up-building of William and Mary
College after the war; and contributed to the larger efficiency of the University of Virginia. He
was connected with many of the most important societies and fraternities. He was a forceful and
graceful speaker, and many of his addresses have been printed. Is 1899 St. Lawrence
(New York) University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws; and King Oscar of Sweden
made him a knight of the Noble Order of Wasa, in recognition of his services as American consul.
He married, in Providence, Rhode Island, September 7, 1857, Sarah Ann Chaffee.
Foote, George Anderson, born in Warren county, North Carolina,
December 16, 1835. He received a medical education at the Jefferson Medical College,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with the degree of doctor of medicine in
1856. Upon the breaking out of the war in 1861, he entered the service of the Confederate States
as a surgeon, and served throughout the war, participating in the campaign in eastern North
Carolina, and receiving the public thanks and commendation of the Confederate officer in command
at Plymouth for gallant and meritorious service. He was on the Confederate ram Albemarle
when it was blown up by a Federal force under Lieutenant w. B. Cushing, on the night of October
27, 1864, in the Roanoke river; and took part in the capture of Cushing's party, of whom Cushing
and one other alone escaped. He was for many years a distinguished practitioner of his profession
in his native state, and was president of the North Carolina Historical society. He was a
frequent contributor to medical and other periodicals; and published, among other papers,
articles on "Higher Education" and on "Hypodermic Medication."
Minor, Charles Landon Carter, who was one of the distinguished
educators of the state, was born at Edgewood, Hanover county, Virginia, December 3, 1835, son of
Lucius H. Minor, Esq., and Catherine Frances (Berkeley) Minor, and grandson of Gen. John Minor,
of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and his wife, Lucy Landon (Carter) Minor, of Cleve, and of Dr.
Carter Berkeley, of Hanover county, Virginia, and his wife Frances (Page) Berkeley, daughter of
Gov. John Page, of Rosewell; he was educated under his father's tuition, attended a private
school in Lynchburg, and later entered the University of Virginia, graduated therefrom in 1858
with the degree of Master of Arts; he then became assistant respectively of Dr. William Dinwiddie
in Albemarle county, the Rev. Dr. Philips at the Diocesan School, the Virginia Female Institute
in Staunton, Virginia, and with Col. Leroy Broun in Albemarle United States Virginia; when the
civil war began he entered the Confederate army as a private in Mumford's Second Virginia Cavalry
Regiment, and saw active service at Manassas, in the Valley campaign under Stonewall Jackson, and
in the battles around Richmond; in 1862, by competitive examination, he was appointed lieutenant
and then captain of ordnance, and was assigned to Gen. Sam Jones, then commanding the department
of Southwest Virginia; he followed Gen. Jones to Charleston, South Carolina, when he took command
of that department in June, 1864, and some months later was assigned to duty as executive officer
at the Richmond Arsenal under Gen. Gorgas, where he remained until the close of the war; after
the war he opened a private school at his old home in Hanover county, but soon accepted the
presidency of the Maryland Agricultural College; subsequently opened a school in Lynchburg, from
which he was elected to a chair in the University of the south at Sewanee, Tennessee, whence he
returned to Virginia to accept the presidency of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College
just opened at Blacksburg, where he remained for eight years; in 1880 he accepted the charge of
St. Paul's School, in Baltimore; he later became associate principal with his old friend and
kinsman, L. M. Blackford, at the Episcopal high school, near Alexandria, Virginia; in Baltimore,
where he spent the last years of his life, he was most successful as a teacher, and he also
devoted much time to political and historical subjects, writing for the press mainly of the times
of the civil war; he published in pamphlet form "The Real Lincoln," a second and enlarged edition
of which, in book form, he was about to publish at the time of his death; in 1874 he received the
degree of Doctor of Laws from William and Mary College; he married, in 1860, Frances Ansley
Cazenove, daughter of Lewis Cazenove, Esq., of Alexandria, Virginia; children: Fannie, who became
the wife of the Rev. James F. Plummer, of Washington, D. C., and Anne Cazenove, who became the
wife of the Rev. Andrew G. Grinnan, of Weston, West Virginia; Dr. Minor died at the home ofhis
brother-in-law, R. M. Fontaine, Esq., in Albemarle county, Virginia, July 13, 1903.
Draper, John Christopher, born at Christiansville, Virginia, March
31, 1835, brother of Henry Draper. In 1850-52 he took the arts course, and in 1855-57 the medical
course, in New York University, and then studied in Europe. He was professor of natural sciences,
1858-60, and of analytical and practical chemistry, 1858-71, in New York University, and in 1859
was professor of chemistry in Cooper Union. From 1863 to 1885 he was professor of physiology and
natural history in the College of the City of New York; in 1865-85, professor of chemistry in the
medical department of New York Hy; and in 1864 was surgeon of a regiment in service. In 1873 he
received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Trinity College. He wrote "A Text-Book on Anatomy,
Physiology and Hygiene" (1866, 6th ed. 1883); "A Practical Laboratory in Medical Chemistry"
(1882); "Medical Physics" (1885); and many articles in the "American Journal of Sciences." He
died in New York, December 20, 1885.
Dabney, Virginius, born in Gloucester county, Virginia, February
15, 1835. He entered the University of Virginia in 1852, where he studied for several years,
being the compeer of Bishop Thomas Hugh Dudley, Thomas R. Price and other distinguished alumni.
Upon leaving the university he began the practice of the law, but left it to become a teacher. He
was a staff officer during the civil war, with the rank of captain, in the Confederate army.
After the war he established in New York City a boys' school, where he had great success as a
teacher. At the time of his death he held a position in the New York custom house. He was ever a
genial companion, and a brilliant raconteur in any company. He published the striking novel, "The
Story of Don Miff, a Symphony of Life," a striking picture of the old regime in Virginia.
Professor Thomas R. Price, his lifelong friend, wrote of him as follows: "His mind had two
special qualities: the one was his peculiar gift of imaginative humor, revealing itself in strong
delightful freaks of language, in happy terms of picturesque expression, in penetrating glimpses
of character reading, and delicious bits of story telling. the other was the massive originality
of his philosophical thinking, his power to understand things and explain things by philosophical
analysis. His mind was a storehouse of original imagination, of shrewd and delightful reasoning
and of definite philosophical conception. A fallacy could not live under the light of his eyes. A
falsehood or a false pretence flashed into sudden deformity under the illumination of his
humorous exposure." He died June 2, 1894, and was buried at the University of Virginia.
Smith, Thomas, born at Culpeper Court House, August 25, 1836, son
of William Smith and Elizabeth Hansborough Bell, his wife. His father was twice governor of
Virginia first in 1854, and again in 1864. At the beginning of the war between the states,
he was commissioned colonel of Virginia volunteers, and organized the Forty-ninth Virginia
Regiment, transferred later to the Army of the Confederacy, and was appointed by the President of
the Confederate States to the positions of brigadier-general and major-general, without
application for such promotion. Thomas Smith acquired an academic education in Warrenton,
Virginia, and in Washington, D. C., and afterward became a student in William and Mary College,
from which he was graduated. He prepared for the bar in the law department of the University of
Virginia, where he spent the years of 1856-57 and 1857-58. Successfully passing the examination
which entitled him to practice in the courts of Virginia, he removed to Charleston, Kanawha
county, then a part of Virginia, where he remained until the outbreak of the civil war. He
enlisted as a private in the Kanawha Riflemen; soon became adjutant-general if the Virginia
forces in the Kanawha Valley, and was subsequently made major of the Thirty-sixth Virginia
Regiment, with which rank he was serving when Floyd's command was sent to fort donelson. at the
head of his regiment he took a battery, and armed his men with captured Enfield rifles. After the
surrender of Fort Donelson, he recruited his regiment in southwestern Virginia, almost to its
full complement. Upon its reorganization, he was tendered the position of colonel by the officers
of his regiment, but declined, preferring that the old officers should retain their places, and
being willing to again serve as major. Subsequently, however, he became colonel, and was also
commissioned brigadier-general, but never served as such, the commission failing to reach him
because of military movements. He was sounded, it was thought fatally, at the battle of Cloyd's
Farm. Recovering from his injury, he rejoined his command in the Valley of Virginia, and
participated in all of the engagements in that entire campaign. After the surrender of Gen. Lee,
he refused to accept the parole until August, 1865, when he realized that all effort to continue
the struggle had been abandoned. following the war, Mr. Smith began the practice of law in
Warrenton, Virginia, being unwilling to resume in Charleston because of the requirements of the
court there as to the oath of allegiance to the Federal government, and because he had been
indicted for treason. He practiced at Warrenton, with the exception of a brief interval, until
1884, and for six years of that time served as county judge. He was also a member of the state
legislature for one term, and was chosen for a second term. However, he became an elector of
Cleveland and Hendricks, and was appointed by President Cleveland to the position of United
States attorney for New Mexico, for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term of four
years. On the expiration of his term of service he returned to Virginia, and became connected
with the settlement of the Virginia debt, and was largely instrumental not only in preventing its
repudiation, but also in securing its adjustment on terms creditable to the commonwealth. He was
appointed chief justice of the territory of New Mexico, at the beginning of Cleveland's second
administration, without solicitation, and served out a term of four years. He then returned to
Virginia, but did not resume the practice of law, and lived quietly at his home in Warrenton. He
married Elizabeth Fairfax, daughter of Judge William H. Gaines, of Warrenton.
Rouss, Charles B., born in Frederick county, Maryland, February
11, 1836, son of Peter Hoke and Belinda (Baltzell) Rouss, and a descendant of Austrian ancestry,
various members being prominent in the public affairs of the Empire, notable among whom was
George Rouss, a member of the common council of Kronstadt, in 1500. Peter Hoke Rouss in 1841
removed from Maryland to Berkeley county, Virginia, where he purchased in the Shenandoah Valley,
twelve miles from Winchester, an estate to which he gave the name of Runnymede. Charles B. Rouss
supplement his public school education by attendance at the Winchester Academy, where he was a
student from the age of ten until fifteen, when he took a position as clerk in a store. Three
years later he engaged in business on his own account, having accumulated sufficient capital from
his earnings, and after another three years was proprietor of the most extensive store in that
section of the county. Upon his return from the war between the states, in which he served as a
private in the Twelfth Virginia Regiment, he engaged in a mercantile business in New York City,
but failed, the result of the then general credit system. Later he opened another establishment,
but upon the basis of a strictly cash system. This proved a successful undertaking, and in due
course of time he erected a building which cost a million dollars, on Broadway, New York City,
and there continued until his death, March 3, 1902. Although a resident of New York City for many
years, he was loyal to the South Land, passing his vacations at Winchester, Virginia, and was
each year an honored participant in the Agricultural Fair, on "Rouss Day," so named in his honor
for his generous benefactions to that and other local institutions. He also contributed
generously to other worthy objects, namely, the sum of $30,000 for the establishment of the city
water works, $10,000 for the improvement and adornment of the grounds of the Mount Hebron
Cemetery Association, the magnificent Rouss Physical Laboratory which he provided for the
University of Virginia, and the splendid Confederate Memorial Hall at Richmond, Virginia, with
its priceless collection of records and relics illustrating the period of the war between the
states. He also erected at Mount Hope Cemetery, near New York City, a monument to the dead of the
Confederate Veteran Camp of New York City, and he also presented to New York City a masterly
replica of Bartholdi's statutes of Washington and lafayette, the originals of which
are in a park in Paris, France. Mr. Rouss married, in 1859, Maggie, daughter of James Keenan, of
Winchester, Virginia.
Brock, Charles William Penn, M. D., born in the Valley of
Virginia, June 1, 1836, son of Ansalem Brock, a farmer and teacher, and Elizabeth Beverley
Buckner, his wife. The American ancestor was Joseph Brock, "Gentleman," born in England, who
settled in Spottsylvania county before 1738, receiving from the secretary's office at
Williamsburg a grant of land. Joseph Brock, one of his descendants, was a colonel in the war of
1812. Colonel Mordecai Buckner, of the Sixth Virginia Regiment, of the Continental army, was an
ancestor in the maternal line. Dr. Brock spent his early years partly in the city and partly in
the country, where he could follow his natural inclination for outdoor sports. His classical
education was obtained in private schools, from whence he went to the University of Virginia in
order to pursue it in the higher branches. In this institution he also commenced his professional
studies, completing them at the Medical College of Virginia, from which he was graduated in the
class of 1859. At the time of the outbreak of the civil war, Dr. Brock enlisted as a private in
the Confederate army, later becoming a surgeon, and subsequently chief surgeon on the staff of
Major-General James L. Kemper. Since 1865 he has been surgeon of the police department of
Richmond City; since 1882; since 1882, chief surgeon of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad; and he
served as president of the National Association of Railway Surgeons in 1892-93. Dr. Brock
married, October 1, 1863, Elizabeth Tyler, daughter of John H. Tyler, of Richmond, and has four
children.
Dudley, Thomas Underwood, born in Richmond, Virginia, September
26, 1837, son of Thomas Underwood Dudley and Maria Friend Dudley, his wife. His education was
begun in private schools, and he afterwards attended Hanover Academy. He then entered the
University of Virginia, in October, 1855, and was graduated with the degree of Master of Arts, in
the class of 1858. He taught for one year in the Dinwiddie school, Albemarle county, Virginia,
and one year in Powell's Female School in Richmond Virginia. The following session he was
appointed assistant professor of Latin in the University of Virginia. Then came the great civil
war, and in 1861 he enlisted as a private in the army of Northern Virginia, but was soon
afterwards promoted the rank of captain and later of major. He remained in service until the
close of the war, and then became a law student in Middlesex, Virginia, with John Randolph
Tucker, as his preceptor. For six months he continued his reading, but abandoned the law for the
ministry; and in January, 1866, entered the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary of
Virginia, at Alexandria. Ordained to the ministry, he served for one year as rector of the
Episcopal church at Harrisonburg, Virginia, which was erected by his efforts, and in January,
1869, was appointed rector of Christ Church, Baltimore, Maryland, where he officiated until
January, 1875. He was then made assistant bishop of Kentucky, and upon the death of Bishop Smith,
ten years later, succeeded as bishop of that diocese. He is widely known through his published
volumes of lectures and sermons. One of the great works that he has accomplished has been in
promoting the welfare of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. Bishop Dudley was
president of the Virginia University Alumni Association of Louisiana, a member of the Country
Club of New York, the Delta Kappa Epsilon Club of New York, The Pendennis Club of Louisville, and
was a Mason, having attained the knight templar degree, and upon whom has been conferred the high
Masonic honor of the thirty-third degree of the Scottish rite. He was married three times
(first) Miss Fannie Berkeley Cochran, of Loudoun county, Virginia, by whom he had four children;
(second) Miss Virginia Fisher Rowland, of Norfolk, Virginia, by whom he had three children, and
(third) Miss Mary Elizabeth Aldrich, of New York City, by whom he had two children.
Walke, Henry, naval officer, was born in Princess Anne county,
Virginia, December 24, 1808; son of Anthony Walke, and a descendant of Thomas Walke, who
emigrated from England in the seventeenth century. His parents removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, in
1811, and his father served in the Ohio house of representatives, 1827-31, and in the senate,
1831-35. On February 1, 1827, Henry was appointed midshipman on the Alert and in July,
1833, was advanced to passed midshipman. He was commissioned lieutenant in February, 1839; was
with the United States fleet in the war with Mexico, at Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Tuspan and Alvarado.
He was promoted commander in 1855 and commanded the store-ship Supply, 1858-61. Being
stationed in Pensacola harbor, after Lieut. Slemmer and his troops had evacuated Fort Barrancas
and taken refuge in Fort Pickens, he took the officers' families on board the Supply,
and with the paroled prisoners, transported them to New York, although he had been ordered to
Vera Cruz. He was court-martialed for disobeying orders and was reprimanded by the secretary of
the navy, but the country applauded his patriotism in rescuing one hundred and six sick soldiers
and noncombatants penned up in Fort Pickens. On September 12, 1861, he was ordered to relieve
John Rodgers, in command of the little flotilla on the Mississippi river, and with a detail of
officers he reconnoitered down the Mississippi to Columbus. In November he conveyed Gen. Grant's
transports to Belmont, and led in the attack on the place preventing the landing of a Confederate
force, and protected Grant's army as it re-embarked on the transports. Commander WAlke was
transferred to the Carondelet and on February 6, 1862, took part in the assault upon
Fort Henry under Flag-Officer Foote, and during the interval after the surrender of the fort and
before the arrival of Grant, he was in command of the fort. Under orders from Grant, Walke
proceeded to Fort Donelson and engaged the enemy on February 13, 1862. Foote arrived in the
evening and on the afternoon of February 14, the entire fleet renewed the attack, the
Carondelet suffering severely. After undergoing some repairs, the Carondelet joined
Foote's fleet above Island No. 10 and on March 30, 1862, Walke volunteered to run the gauntlet of
the forts and support Pope at New Madrid. This he accomplished on the night of April 4, 1862, and
on April 7, silenced the batteries at Watson' Landing and covered the landing of Pope's army and
the capture of the Island. When, on May 10, 1862, eight Confederate rams steamed up the river at
full speed to attack mortar boat No. 16 and her consort the Cincinnati, the
carondelet' was practically the only boat ready for an encounter. She attacked the boats and
drove them all under the protection of Fort Pillow before the other Union boats arrived. Fort
Pillow was abandoned, June 4, and on June 6, Walke, with the Carondelet, engaged in the
battle of Memphis. Farragut moved up to Vicksburg, passed the fleets and was joined by Capt.
Davis, who had succeeded Foote. In making a reconnoisance of the Yazoo river, Walke meeting with
the ram Arkansas, retreated and was pursued until, with his steering gear disabled, he
ran close into the bank, and the ram in passing discharged repeated broadsides into the
Carondelet, and kept on her way to Vicksburg. He was promoted captain, July 16, 1862, was
given command of the gun-boats patrolling the river below Helena, and in December made an
excursion of the Yazoo. He led the second division of Porter's fleet at Grand Gulf, April 29,
1863, and remained in the Mississippi squadron until September 24, 1863, when he was assigned to
the Sacramento and sent in search of the Alabama. When he arrived at Lisbon he
learned of her destruction by the Kearsarge, but he blockaded the Rappahannock
at Calais for fifteen months, and after her escape, pursued her to Liverpool, where he held her
until the end of the war. He was promoted commodore, July 25, 1866; read-admiral, July 13, 1780,
and was retired at his own request, April 26, 1871. He is the author of: "Naval Scenes and
Reminiscence of the Civil War" (1877). He died in Brooklyn, New York, March 8, 1896.
Brice, Benjamin W., was born in Virginia, 1809. He was graduated
from West Point in 1829, and served on frontier duty at Jefferson barracks, Missouri, in 1829-30,
at Fort Armstrong, Illinois, 1830-31, and on the expedition against the Sac Indians in 1831. He
resigned February 13, 1832, and from 1835 to 1839 was brigade major of the Ohio militia. In 1845
he was counsellor-at-law and associate judge of common pleas, Licking county, Ohio. In 1846 he
was adjutant of the state of Ohio, and on March 3, 1847, he was reappointed in the United States
army with the rank of major and paymaster. He served in the pay department at Cincinnati, Ohio,
and later in the war with Mexico at Camargo, Monterey, Saltillo and Brazos Island, Mexico, and at
Fort Brown, Texas, during 1847, 1848 and 1849. The army disbanded March 4, 1849, and in 1852 he
was again reappointed in the army with the same rank as before, serving in the pay department in
New Mexico, Louisiana, Florida and Kansas. During the civil war he was paymaster at various
places, and in October, 1864, was placed over the pay department at Washington, D. C. He was
appointed paymaster-general with the rank of colonel in November, 1864, and in December was
brevetted lieutenant-colonel, colonel and brigadier-general. In March, 1865, he was brevetted
major-general for "faithful, meritorious and distinguished services in the pay department" during
the war, and in July, 1866, he was promoted brigadier-general. he was retired from active service
by reason of age limit, January 1, 1872. He died in Washington, D. C., December 4, 1892.
Preston, John Smith, was born at the Salt Works, near Abingdon,
Virginia, April 20, 1809; son of Gen. Francis and Sarah (Campbell) Preston, and great-grandson of
Patrick Henry, the orator. He was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, A. B., 1824,
did post-graduate work at the University of Virginia, 1825-27. and attended the Harvard Law
School. He was married in 1830 to Caroline, a sister of Gen. Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. He
afterward moved to Columbia, South Carolina, and thence to Louisiana, where he worked his sugar
plantations. He became prominent as an orator in the south and delivered many famous addresses,
among them the one at the laying of the cornerstone of the University of the South, at Sewanee,
Tennessee, in 1857. He was chairman of the South Carolina committee to the Democratic convention
at Charleston in May, 1860; was a commissioner to Virginia, and in February, 1861, advocated the
secession of Virginia. He was on the staff of Gen. Beauregard in the first battle of Bull Run,
1861, was promoted brigadier-general and served in the conscript department, 1865. He was then in
Europe for a number of years and subsequently returned to South Carolina. He delivered his last
public address at the unveiling of the Confederate monument at Columbia, South Carolina. He made
a collection of painting and sculpture, and was a helpful friend to Hiram Powers and other rising
artists. He died in Columbia, South Carolina, May 1, 1881.
Thompson, Richard Wigginton, cabinet officer, was born in Culpeper
county, Virginia, June 9, 1809. He removed to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1831, and later to
Lawrence county, Indiana, where, in 1834, he was admitted to the bar. He was a representative in
the Indiana legislature, 1834-36; state senator, 1836-38, and was presidential elector for
Harrison and Tyler in 1841. He was a Whig representative from Indiana in the twenty-seventh and
thirtieth congresses, 1841-43 and 1847-49; was defeated as a candidate for presidential elector
on the Clay and Frelinghuysen ticket in 1844; declined President Taylor's offer of the Austrian
mission, as well as President Fillmore's offer of the recordership of the general land-office,
and during the civil war was in charge of a recruiting post near Terre Haute, Indiana. He was a
presidential elector for Lincoln and Johnson in 1865; was a delegate to the Republican national
conventions of 1868 and 1876, framing the platform of the former, and was judge of the fifth
Indiana circuit court, 1867-69. In 1877 he was appointed secretary of the navy in President
Hayes's cabinet, resigning in 1881 to become chairman of the American committee of the Panama
Canal Company. He is the author of: "The Papacy and Civil Power" (1877); "History of the
Protective Tariff" (1888); "Footprints of the Jesuits" (1894), and "Recollections of Sixteen
Presidents from Washington to Lincoln" (2 vols. 1894). He died in Terre Haute, Indiana, February
9, 1900.