USA > Washington DC > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 44
USA > Virginia > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 44
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Henry K. (deceased) and James A. for commander-in-chief of the colonial Cochran, deceased in 1870. The grand- forces. John Lewis, the pioneer, fled from Ireland for killing a nobleman, who had responded to the remonstrance of a crip- pled brother of John for riding through their wheat field, by a blow from his rid- ing whip. A grandson of John Lewis, the pioneer, was John Lewis, son of Will- iam Lewis, who was a captain of the reg- ular troops in the Revolution, and was at the battles of Saratoga, Monmouth and Brandywine, and was at Valley Forge in 1777-8. He was the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch. John Lewis, the pioneer, settled in what is now Au- gusta, near the town of Staunton, Va., in 1731. The county of Augusta was organ- ized in 1745, and John Lewis was made a magistrate, and his son Thomas was made surveyor. Five of John Lewis' sons were in the Revolutionary army and were all at Braddock's defeat. father died in 1836, his wife preceding him in 1826. Mr. Cochran's great-grand- father, John Cochran, was born in county Antrim in the north of Ireland in 1712, emigrating to this country about the year 1742. He settled in Augusta county and married Miss Susanna Donelly. a native of Antrim county, Ireland, with whom he was acquainted in his native country. He carried on merchandising in Au- gusta county for many years and there he died. An uncle of Mr. Cochran's father was a soldier in the Revolutionary army under Gen. Greene in North Carolina. The maiden name of Mr. Cochran's mother was Margaret Lynn Lewis, daugh- ter of John Lewis of Monroe county, Va., a son of William Lewis, of Augusta county, a son of John Lewis who was born in Ireland, and whose father's name was Andrew Lewis. John Lewis, who was the progenitor of this branch of the family in HON. CHARLES F. COLLIER America, was born in Ireland in 1678 and was born in Petersburg, Va., Septem- ber 16, 1827. He was the first-born of Hon. R. R. Collier and Mary A. Collier. Mrs. Collier is the daughter of Samuel and Fannie (Tinsley) Davis, of Hanover county, Va. She was born in Petersburg, August 22, 1808, and is still living in the house where she was born. Mr. Collier's early education was acquired at the best schools in his native city. His collegiate course was at Washington college, now Washington and Lee university, and at the university of Virginia. After complet- ing his classical education he entered the law school of Harvard university at Cam- bridge, Mass., at the time when Edward Everett was president of that institution, and Chancellor Kent and Simon Green- came to America in his early manhood, settling in Augusta county. He was known as "the pioneer." His wife's maiden name was Margaret Lynn, a native of Ire- land, born in 1693. She was a descendant of the Lynns, of Lock Lynn, Scotland, her father's name being William Lynn. This couple (John, the pioneer, and his wife) had seven children, of whom Sam- uel, the eldest, was a member of the Vir- ginia convention of 1774. Andrew, another son, was a general in the Revolutionary army and commanded the state troops at the battle of Great Bridge, near Norfolk, and also led the state troops at the battle of Point Pleasant, in western Virginia, where his brother, Col. Charles Lewis, was killed. Gen. Andrew Lewis was at leaf were law professors. His law course one time suggested by Gen. Washington completed, he returned to Petersburg and
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began the practice of his profession in | on Gen. Gwyn's staff, which he accepted. company with his father. At this period While in this service at Norfolk he was re-elected to the legislature from the city of Petersburg. During his term of legisla- tive service he was elected to the Con- federate congress as the representative of the Petersburg district to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Roger A. Pryor, who had entered the military service of the Confederacy. At the close of his congressional term, Mr. Collier again co-operated with the army, though exempt from military duty, and took part in the battles of Rives' farm and Avery's farm. At the former battle he was brevetted adjutant for "gallant services in the face of the foe." Col. Collier, at the close of the war, was elected to the office of mayor of Peters- burg, Va., in which he served for one full term and a part of another, when he was removed by the military authority for inability to take the iron-clad oath. Immediately upon his removal as mayor, and before he had surrendered the office, he was elected president of the Peters- burg & Weldon railroad company, which office he filled for some four years. For several years after this he practiced at the bar. In the spring of 1887, after the democratic party had been for many years without a voice in the municipal affairs of Petersburg, Col. Collier was again nominated for mayor, at the head of an unexceptionable ticket for the other general city offices, and the democrats carried the ticket by a heavy majority. Col. Collier was again installed as mayor and served throughout his term. At the election in 1890, he was again nominated upon the democratic ticket and elected, and in 1892 again re-elected, his present term extending to July 1, 1894. Just before he had not attained his majority by about six months. During this year he was united in marriage with Miss Arabella E. Gee, of Prince George county, Va., second daughter of the late Theron and Mary Douglass Gee, née Clemmens. After practicing his profession in Petersburg for a year or more, Mr. Collier removed to his plantation in Prince George county. The farm was originally owned by the late Edmund Ruffin, Sr., where that gen- tleman edited and published the Farmers' Register. About a year after Mr. Collier's residence in Prince George county, he was nominated by the democratic party as representative of the counties of Prince George and Surrey in the house of dele- gates. He was duly elected and served one term, declining a re-election. During this period he was elected and commis- sioned major of militia. In 1857 Maj. Collier moved back to Petersburg and re- sumed the practice of law. Shortly after- ward he was elected to the legislature from Petersburg and was a member of that body when the state seceded from the Union. Mr. Collier, in accord with an overwhelming majority of the peo- ple of Virginia, was strongly opposed to secession, but under President Lincoln's call upon Virginia for her quota of troops to put down seces- sion, the ordinance of secession was passed and the same influence led Mr. Collier to concur in the action of the con- vention in the passage of the secession ordinance. When the state troops were organized by Gov. Letcher, Mr. Collier proffered his services to Maj. General Gwyn, who had been invited to take com- mand of the state forces. He was offered the position of assistant adjutant-general his election he had the misfortune to lose
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his estimable wife, who died suddenly on | agent, custom-house officer, and, for a the 7th of May, 1890, an occasion of deep time, as joint proprietor of the Orleans hotel, Sacramento City. He was also captain of the Sutter Rifles of that city, organized in 1852. sorrow. Colonel Collier is and has been for many years an elder in the Tabb street Presbyterian church, and from the In December, 1856, he returned to Alexandria, and re-embarked in the banking business with his brother, John D. Corse, under the style of the Corse Brothers. date of his joining the church has been connected with the Sunday school of the Tabb street Presbyterian church, of which he has been president and superintendent. As ruling elder he has been chosen a com- missioner from East Hanover presbytery to four general assemblies of the south- ern Presbyterian church, at one of which he was elected one of the commissioners to attend the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance at London, but the death of his law part- ner prevented his attendance upon that occasion. On June 24, 1891, Mr. Collier was married to Miss Mary Epes Jones, daughter of the late Judge R. H. Jones, of Petersburg.
GEN. MONTGOMERY D. CORSE.
The following interesting sketch of the life of Gen. Montgomery D. Corse is taken from "Pickett's Men," by Walter Harrison, and is well worthy of perusal:
In 1860, he organized, in Alexandria, a volunteer company called the "Old Dominion Rifles," and later in the same year, when, in view of the approaching struggle between the northern and south- ern states, a battalion of volunteers was organized, he was elected major of it. This battalion was composed of three in- fantry companies-the Alexandria Rifle- men, Capt. Morton Marye; Mount Ver- non Guard, and Old Dominion Rifles, Capt. Arthur Herbert -and the Alexan- dria Artillery, Capt. Delaware Kemper. These infantry companies were afterward merged in the Seventeenth regiment Virginia infantry, which distinguished itself so greatly throughout the war, and the artillery company was afterward so well known as Kemper's battery, playing a brilliant part in the battles of Bull Run and Manassas. General, or as he then was, Major Corse, served for a time as assistant adjutant-general to the dif- ferent commanding officers of the post of Alexandria during the early part of 1861, viz .: Brig .- Gen. Philip St. George Cocke; Col. Sidney Taylor and George Terrett. After the evacuation of Alex- andria by the Virginia troops, the falling back to Manassas and the organization of the Confederate army by Gen. G. T.Beau- regard, Major Corse was assigned to the command of the Seventeenth regiment; Lieut .- Col. David Funsten; and Major George Brent. Afterward Lieut .- Col. Funsten was made colonel of the Elev- enth Virginia, and William Mumford assigned as lieutenant-colonel in his place. Col. Corse commanded his regi- ment at the engagement of Bull Run, at Blackburn's Ford, July 18, 1861, and bat- tle of Manassas, July 21, 1861.
Gen. Corse was born in the city of Alex- andria, D. C., on March 14, 1816. He was educated at the military school of Capt. Bradley Lowe, and high school of Ben- jamin Hallowell, and then entered into the exchange and broker's office of his father, in Alexandria. In 1846 he was elected captain of a volunteer company, and went to the war with Mexico, in com- mand of company B, First regiment of Virginia volunteers, commanded by Col. Hamstrank. He served thus until the end of the Mexican war, and returned to Alexandria in 1848. In February, 1849, he went with an early emigration to Cali- fornia, sailing from New York in the steamer Falcon, via Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco by the first trip He was at different periods in this brig- of the steamer Oregon, on April 1, 1849. ade commanded by Longstreet, Ewell, He was" occupied in California in various Clark, A. P. Hill, and Kemper. With callings; "as a miner, merchant, steamboat this brigade he fought his regiment at
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Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Virginia. Corse's brigade then became and in the seven days' fighting around the city of Richmond in 1862. Col. Corse commanded Kemper's brigade in the sec- ond battle of Manassas (Gen. Kemper commanding division) when he was wounded slightly in the leg, and had his horse killed under him, He was on duty, however, the next day, and marched with his command into Maryland. He next commanded his regiment at the battle of Boonsborough, when he was wounded in the mouth. At the battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam, he carried in his regiment ( the 17th ) with only fifty-six men, and only brought out seven; Major Arthur Herbert, Lieut. Thomas Perry and five privates. Here Col. Corse was wounded a third time, and left for a time in the hands of the enemy, being unable to re- tire with his little remnant of seven; he was subsequently relieved by the advance of the Confederate troops.
Gen. Corse relates an incident of his temporary capture and suspense worth recording. While lying helpless from his wound he was surrounded by a small squad of the enemy; one of these men, more brutal than the others, after asking him if he were wounded, deliberately prepared to shoot him, coolly cocking his gun and examining the cap; but one of his companions prevented this dastardly coward from perpetrating the vile act, and drove him off with indig- nation; at the same time promising to Col. Corse protection and treatment be- coming a prisoner of war. Gen. Corse has often mentioned this as a remarkable act of humanity, for which he desires to give credit to an unknown soldier of the enemy.
part of Pickett's division and served with it throughout the war, always commanded by its gallant old commander. When the army of northern Virginia moved into Maryland in the campaign of 1863, Gen. Corse was left with his brigade and a North Carolina regiment at Hanover Junction in Virginia, for the purpose of guarding the railroads and bridges and approaches to the city of Richmond. He was thus detached from his division and proper army by order of the war de- partment, and deprived of participation in that disastrous campaign, as well as in the glorious but sad struggles of the di- vision of Gettysburg. Meantime. Gen. Corse performed good service in this de- tached and undesirable duty, marching backward and forward between Rich- mond, Hanover Junction and Gordons- ville, until he rejoined the army again near Winchester, Va., on its return from Pennsylvania. There he was enabled to perform signal service for that army. Under the direction of Gen. Pickett he moved his brigade with a small force of artillery in advance of the army (then following back into eastern Virginia), and succeeded in securing the passes of Chester and Manassas Gaps- which the enemy had already laid hold of-and thus effected for the whole army an easy passage over the Blue Ridge, which otherwise would have been roughly con- tested. Gen. Corse again commanded his brigade when detached from the division and sent to the command of General's Sam Jones and R. Ransom in southwestern Virginia, during the autumn and winter of 1863-4. He moved his brigade thence into Tennessee to join Longstreet's expedition against Knox- ville; had an engagement at Danridge, Tenn., with the enemy (he commanding his own and Wharton's brigade), and thence marched his brigade, in the depth of winter, half of his men barefoot, to Bristol, Tenn. (about ninety miles), over hard-frozen roads, where he took the cars for Petersburg. He was no sooner in Petersburg than he was ordered to Kins- ton, N. C., where he took active part and did valuable service in the attack upon
On November 1, 1862, Col. Corse was commissioned brigadier-general and as- signed to the command of Pickett's old brigade. About this time, having ob- tained ten days' leave of absence for the purpose, Gen. Corse was married to Miss Elizabeth Beverley; and after much less than a " lune de miel" was ordered back to the army at Fredericksburg to take command of a new brigade made up for him. This brigade was made up of the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Thirtieth and Thirty-second Virginia regiments, to Newbern, N. C., in February, 1864. Gen. which was after added the Twenty-ninth Corse commanded, for some time after-
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ward, the military district around Kinston, command of Gen. J. B. Magruder on the N. C., made a demonstration with his troops against Newbern, to draw off atten- tion from the attack and capture of Plymouth by Gen. Hoke, and assisted Hoke in the second attack upon Newbern. Commanded his brigade in the battle of Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864, where he cleared the whole front before his com- mand, taking about 600 prisoners but losing several officers and many men. He then rejoined the army of northern Virginia at Hanover junction, from which his brigade was never again separated.
peninsula during the first year of the war; fought with distinction at Malvern Hill, where its gallant major, John Stuart Walker, was killed; attached to Semmes' brigade, it participated in the Maryland campaign, 1862. The Seventeenth regi- ment, commanded by Col. Arthur Her- bert, has already been mentioned as attached to Kemper's brigade. The Thir- tieth, first commanded by Col. R. Milton Cary, subsequently by Col. Archy T. Har- rison, recruited in Fredericksburg and Caroline county at the beginning of the war, did service at Acquia Creek, supply- ing the batteries, in their affairs with the flotilla of the enemy's gun boats, on the Potomac in 1861 Owing to the continual ill health of Col. Harrison this regiment was for the greater part of the war under the immediate and able command of Lieut .- Col. Robert S. Chew of Fredericks- burg.
Gen. Corse was warmly engaged with Sheridan's cavalry at Dinwiddie, March 31st, and the brigade behaved most handsomely both at Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, where Gen. Corse, along with most of his officers and men, was captured. He was carried a prisoner of war to Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, where he was held until some time in August, 1865. He was finally released when the war was ended, and returned, like so many others of his comrades, to the peaceful vocations of citizen life. In the quiet contentment of home, still sur- rounded by those, so many of whom have shared his trials and perils of war, let us hope that this scarred old veteran may be forgetting the troubles of cruel civil war in the calm of peace, and remembering only the noble devoir done by himself, and the warm place he will ever hold in the eers, it did good service on the Blackwater hearts of his army companions.
The Thirty-second regiment, recruited from several of the tidewater counties, commanded by Col. Edgar B. Montague, had been engaged with credit in various actions before its attachment to this brig- ade. At Petersburg, in the spring of 1863, the Twenty-ninth regiment, recruited in western Virginia and commanded by Col. James Giles, was detached from Colston and assigned to this brigade. A large regiment, composed of sturdy mountain- and in various engagements. It was for some time ably commanded by Lieut .- Col. Arthur Herbert of the Seventeenth Virginia.
The Corse Brigade .- In November, 1862, a brigade composed of the Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Thirtieth Virginia regi- ments was organized at Fredericksburg, to which were. afterward added the O. A. CRENSHAW, M. D., Twenty-ninth and Thirty-second Vir- was born in Goochland county, Va., May II, 1822. His collegiate education was received at William and Mary college, which college he entered in 1838 and left in 1840, at once beginning the study of medicine by attending the lectures in the Richmond Medical college. In 1842, he entered the university of Pennsylvania, where he further prosecuted the study of medicine, graduating with honors in 1844; the following year he located on lower ginia, and the command assigned to Brig .- Gen. M. D. Corse, recently promoted from colonel of the Seventeenth Virginia regiment. Gen. Corse had for a short period previously commanded Pickett's brigade. The Fifteenth regiment was re- cruited in the city of Richmond early in 1861; first commanded by Col. Thomas P. August, who was wounded at Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, and incapacitated for field service; from that time subsequently by Lieut .- Col. E. M. Morrison. A portion of the regiment was engaged at the fight of Bethel, May, 1861, served with the James river, entering upon an active and
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uninterrupted practice, and continuing | merchandising for a vocation, doing busi until 1854, when failing health warned him of needed rest and recuperation. He therefore spent about one year in Europe; returning, he located in 1856 in Richmond, where he has since resided. Upon the breaking out of hostilities between the states, Dr. Crenshaw was commissioned (May, 1861) as surgeon in the Confeder- ate service, and assigned to duty at Nor- folk, in the navy yard. Upon the evacua- COL. WILFRED E. CUTSHAW, tion of Norfolk, he was assigned to the of Richmond, Va., was born at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., January 25, 1828. His father was the son of George W. Cut- shaw, a native of Loudoun county, Va., who died in 1887. He was the son of John W. Cutshaw, a native of Maryland and a farmer by occupation, who served in the war of 1812. The father of John W. Cutshaw was a native of Scotland. The mother of Col. Cutshaw, Martha J. Moxley, was born in Alexandria and she is still living. Maternally the genealogy traces back to England. Col. Cutshaw graduated from the Virginia Military in- stitute in 1858. This course gave him a Sixteenth Virginia regiment and stationed at Fortress Monroe. In September of 1861, he was made medical director of the army of Virginia, and with headquarters at White Sulphur Springs did duty until the following December, when he was or- dered to Richmond and given charge of a hospital. In 1862 he was given charge of a hospital for army officers; subse- quently he was made president of the medical examining board, which position he held until the close of hostilities, when he resumed the practice of his profession in Richmond. In the profession his skill and ability have been manifest in an ac- knowledge of both civil and military tive and successful practice, and he sus- engineering. He then taught one term tains a desirable rank among members of in his native county, and in 1859 became the profession. He is of a progressive a teacher in the Hampton Military insti- spirit and takes much interest in the ad- tute, continuing there until the spring of vancement of the profession to which he 1861, when he resigned, to enter the serv- has devoted his life.
ness and residing in New Orleans, La., and other points south; he retired from business and was at the time of his death residing in Pennsylvania, near Summer- ville. His wife was a daughter of Thomas Pemberton, a native of King William county, and who was a captain in the Revolution.
ice of the Confederate army. In April, 1861, he was made first lieutenant; in the spring of 1862 he was promoted to cap- tain of artillery; in the fall of 1862 he was made a major of artillery; in Febru-
In 1886 Dr. Crenshaw married Miss Susan W. Anderson, consummating a happy union, which has been blessed by the birth of two sons and one daughter, that constitute an interesting family. ary, 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant- The parents of Dr. Crenshaw were As- colonel of artillery. Col. Cutshaw served berry and Ann S. (Pemberton) Crenshaw. on the peninsula under Gen. McGruder, They were natives of Virginia and they and in the valley of Virginia under Gen. T. J. Jackson until May, 1862, when he was severely wounded in the battle of had several children, of which only three sons and one daughter survived to mature age. The father for many years followed Winchester by a shot in the left knee
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and was left in the hands of the enemy. fessor of mathematics and physics in the He remained as paroled prisoner within military institute. He thus continued the lines of the enemy until April, 1863, until September, 1871, when he was ap- and after sufficiently recovering was pointed assistant professor of civil and then exchanged as a prisoner of war. military engineering and was placed in full charge of the chair. He thus con- tinued until 1873, when he was appointed city engineer of Richmond. Col. Cut- shaw has served in the last mentioned position ever since, having been re-ap- pointed by the council. He is a member of the American society of civil engineers, of the Royal Arcanum and of the Virginia Historical society and the Southern His- torical society. He is president of the society of Alumni of the Virginia Military institute and is a member of the Y. M. C. A. Col. Cutshaw has been twice mar- ried, but both of his wives are dead. His first wife was Mrs. E. S. Norfleet, whom he married in December, 1876. She died in January, 1877. In January, 1890, he married Miss M. W. Morton, who died in December of the same year.
Having been pronounced by a medical examining board unfit for active duty, he was assigned acting commander of cadets at the Virginia Military institute, a posi- tion he held until September, 1863. He then again applied for admission in the army, and this time was accepted, not- withstanding the fact that his wound was yet unhealed. He was assigned to duty as assistant inspector-general of the ar- tillery, second corps, army of northern Virginia. He continued in that capacity until the early part of 1864, when he was promoted to major of artillery and was assigned to the command of a battalion of artillery of the second corps, serving in this position until 1865. In the battle of Spottsylvania he received a slight wound in the right arm. In February, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant- colonel and served as such until April, 1865, when, in the battle of Sailor's Creek, just three days before the surrender at Appomattox, he had the misfortune to receive a shot in his right leg. This was late in the evening, and on the next morning his leg was amputated between the knee and the hip. Col. Cutshaw was
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