USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
975.5 B78v v. 2
1917118
N
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02277 0504
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/virginiavirginia02broc
1606. 1606-1888 1888. VIRGINIA AND
VIRGINIANS V.2
EMINENT VIRGINIANS.
Expontives of the Colony of Virginia from Sir Thomas "testi to bord Dunmore. Executives of the State of Vir- with a frem Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee. Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powell Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury.
By DR. R. A. BROCK, Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society.
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
From Settlement of Jamestown to Close of the Civil War.
Written by PROF. VIRGIL A. LEWIS. Revised by DR. R. A. BROCK.
VOL. II. WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. H. HARDESTY, Publisher, RICHMOND AND TOLEDO. 1888.
1917118
Copyright, 1889, By H. HI. HARDESTY.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
PAGE
HISTORY OF . VIRGINIA 415 10 498
î Virginia, in the Confederate States Navy 41510 448
Virginia in the Battles of the War between the States 419 to 198
EMINENT VIRGINIANS 499 to 813
Sigvers of the Declaration of Independence. 199 to 518
Presidents of the United States. 518 10 546
Gov. Fitzhugh Lop 546 to 549
R . Brock. 549 to 551
Maior Win. T. Antberlin, with portrait. 551 to 553
Gen. V. D. Grover, with portrait 553 to 555
Hon. Alex. Donnan, with portrait 555 to 556 Residents of Campbell County. 556 to 595
Residents of Pittsylvania County 595 to 619 619 to 025
Residents of Halifax County
Residents of Prince Edward County 626 to 631
-
Residents of Notroway County. G81 to 684
Residents of Dinwiddie County. 634 to 659
Besidouts of Nansemond County 659 to 653
Residents of Norfolk County.
663 15 686
Residents of Elizabeth City County
686 to 589
Residents of Warwick County
600 to 033
Residents of James City County 604 to 702
Residents of Washington County 702 to 754
Residents of City of Richmond,
765 to 813
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee Frontispiece
Portrait of R. A. Brock. Back of Index
The Virginia Ramming the Cumberland 429
Portrait of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury. 413
Monument to Confederate Dead, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. 158
Falling Springs, West Virginia .. 459
Old Colonial Stove used in first Virginia House of Burgesses.
465
Locoa Falls ..
471
Portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall
477
Scene on St. John's River.
483
Crawford's Statue of Washington
4.89
Portraits of George Wythe. Benj. Harrison, Thos. Jefferson 501
505
Portraits of Thos. Nelson, jr., Richard Henry Lee, Franceis Lightfoot.
509
Portrait of Carter Braxton.
515.
Portrait of George Washington
519
Portrait of Thos. Jefferson.
525
Portrait of James Madison 533
529
Portrait of James Monroe,
Portrait of W. H. Harrison
537
Portrait of John Tyler. 541
Portrait of Zachary Taylor
545
The Houdan Statue of Washington.
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
VIRGINIA IN THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY.
When President Davis formed his Cabinet, he called to the Navy de- partment, as secretary, the Hon. Stephen Mallory, of Florida. Mr. Mallory, born on the island of Trinidad. 1813, died at Pensacola, Florida, November 9, 1873, was admitted to the bar in Florida in 139; served in the war against the Seminoles; was some years inspor- tor of customs and collector of customs at Key West: represented Florida in the United States Senate for the ten years preceding the secession of that state, and was chairman of the senate committee on naval affairs most of the time; served as secretary of the Confeder- ate States Navy until that government ceased to csist; was arrested at La Grange, Georgia (where his family was then residing), May 20, 1865; confined at Fort Lafayette until released on parole in March, 1866; returned to Florida in July, 1866, and practiced law in Pensa- rola until his death.
I'pon those to whom was confided the conduct of Confederate nava! affairs devolved first the task of creating a navy for a section of com- try without ships or seamen, unsupplied with iron or with skilled workinen to fashion it ; having no mills or shops capable of turning out sich work. The Tredegar Ironworks, at Richmond, Virginia, was the only establishment south of the Potomac where a large gun could be vast. There was not in the southern country a mill that could cast a two and one-half inch plate. The Confederacy had no naval arsenal, no naval stores, no natural resources available for the creation of a navy. Of the woods needed for such purpose there was, indeed, a bountiful supply in the pine belts and live-oak groves from Georgia to the Gulf; Inuit the supply of wood was of no use without facilities for construc- tion, and these were lacking.
The people of the south were an agricultural people, and not man- facturers, nor devoted to commercial pursuits. Private shipyards . Were few, and of no value in the emergency. The only public dockyards within Confederate limits were at Norfolk, Virginia, and Pensacoli, Florida. The latter was never of first-class position, being used for purposes of shelter and repairs. Only one vessel had ever been com- Pletely constructed at the Pensacola yard, the third-class screw steamer
416
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
Seminole. The hull of the Pensacola, a second-class screw steamer, was built there, but the steamer was completed at the Washington yards.
THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD IN APRIL, 1861.
The yard at Norfolk was, on the contrary, one of the oldest and per- haps the most valuable and important naval establishment the United States Government possessed. It had a magnificent granite dry dock, foundry and machine shops; two complete shiphouses and one unfin- ished ; officers' houses and naval barracks; tools and machinery of all kinds; material, ammunition and provisions of every description. From its stock had been launched two sloops-of-the-line, one frigato, four sloops-of-war, one brig, four screw steamers, and one side-wheel steamer. A vast amount of rebuilding and refitting was done there every year.
On the night of April 20, 1861, this stronghold was laid waste and abandoned by the United States troops stationed there, eight hundred marines and seamen with officers, under command of Commodore C. S. McCauley. Shiphouses, storehouses and offices were fired, guns in the parks were spiked, machinery broken up. The sloop-of-war Cumber- land, flagship of the Home squadron, United States navy, was lying off in the Elizabeth river. To this were carried such stores as could be transferred, and the remainder destroyed. Ships at the docks were set on fire and scuttled; the most of them burned. The ships were: Line- of-battle ships Pennsylvania and Delaware, the first in commission as a receiving ship, the second carrying seventy-four guns; line-of-battle ship Columbus, eighty guns; frigates Raritan and Columbia, fifty guns each ; sailing sloops Plymouth and Germantown, twenty-two gunseach ; brig Dolphin, four guns, and the steam frigate Merrimac, which alone was valued at $1,200,000. The line-of-battle ship New York was in shiphouse A, and was also burned. The old frigate United States escaped destruction, and soon after the evacuation was taken down the river and sunk at its mouth by Virginia troops.
The Pawnee, United States navy, had left Washington the day pre- vious, under command of Commodore Hiram Paulding, whose orders were to bring off the vessels lying at the Norfolk yard. He was two hours too late. The work of destruction had begun, and the Pawnee was put to use to tow the Cumberland down the river with the depart- ing Federal troops on board. The loss to the Federal Government in the destruction was incalculable. The direct value of the property de- stroyed was estimated by the United States Naval Department as $9,- 760,181; but a greater loss to that government resulted from allowing such valuable and much needed stores to fall indirectly into the hands of those upon whom it was about to wage war.
417
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
Immediately on the departure of the Federal forces the citizens of Nor- folk and the two military companies then in the city broke into the vard and devoted themselves to saving the property, heedless of per- sonal risk from flying firebrands and igniting powder. The dry dock was saved, although twenty-six barrels of powder had been distributed in the culvert north of the dock, and a train laid to a lighted fuse. Two thousand guns were found practically uninjured, a large portion of them the new Dahlgren guns of various caliber. Small arms, ma- chinery, steel plates, castings, construction materials, ordnance and equipment stores, were saved from the flames. Later the spiked can- non were restored to use. The fire on the Merrimac was quenched when she had burned to the water line, ber hull and boilers, and the heavy and costly part of her engine, but little ininred. Restored to service at a later date, she took her place in the history of the war as the famous ironclad ram Virginia. The hull of the Germantown, with her battery of ten large guns, was raised in June following. The Plymouth was also found worthy of repairs, and put to service.
All this the devotion of Virginians saved to the Confederacy. Ou Monday morning, April 22d, the flag of Virginia, raised by Lieutenant C. F. M. Spotswood, formerly of the United States navy, floated over the yard.
VIRGINIA CREATES A NAVY.
Ordinance No. 9, passed by the Virginia State Convention on the same day that convention passed the Ordinance of Secession, April 17, 1861, empowered the Governor of Virginia to call for volunteers for state defense, and to "invite all efficient and worthy Virginians and ros- idents of Virginia in the army and navy of the United States to retire therefrom, and to enter the service of Virginia," where they would be given " the same rank as that held in the United States service or its equivalent." April 22d, Robert E. Lee, late colonel United States army, was appointed commander-in-chief of the army and navy of Virginia. April 27th, an ordinance was passed creating the navy of Virginia, to consist of two thousand marines and seamen with their proper officers. The constitution of the Confederate States was rati- fied and proclaimed binding upon the people of Virginia by Ordinance No. 56, when all military and naval affairs in the state were transferred to the control of that government.
DEFENSES'ALONG THE POTOMAC, YORK AND RAPPAHANNOCK RIVERS.
One of the first official acts of General Lee as commander of the Vir- ginia forces was to provide for the construction of batteries to guard Virginia waters against the passage of hostile vessels. In May, 1861, a battery was erected at Aequia creek, on the Potomac, under super-
418
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
vision of Confederate States naval officers, Captain William C. Lynch, Commander Robert D. Thorburn, and Lieutenants H. H. Lewis and John Wilkinson. This protected the terminus of the railroad to Rich- mond, guarded the approaches to Fredericksburg from the Potomac, and at the same time menaced Federal navigation of that river. En- listments for the navy not having fairly begun, the battery was manned by infantry volunteers, Captain Lynch in command.
The Federal authorities sent the newly organized Potomac flotilla to destroy the battery, three ships, Commander James H. Ward: the Freeborn, three guns, the Resolute, two guns, the Anascostia, two guns. On May 31st and June Ist, these ships shelled the battery without of- fect. Captain Lynch, in his official report, dated June 2, 1861, says: "On Friday two out of three steamers abreast of the battery opened fire on us, and continued the cannonade for three hours, when they withdrew. * Upon our part no one was injured. Yesterday the steamers, which had laid off during the night, were reinforced by the Pawnee, and at 11:30 they commenced a brisk cannonade, which con- tinued with little interruption until about 4:30 p. m. during which the Pawnee fired 392 shot and shell, and the other steamers 207, the greater portion of the latter being rifled shell." The firing from the battery damaged the Freeborn so much she was obliged to put back to Washington for repairs. The only casualty on the Confederate side was one man wounded in hand, losing a finger.
A battery of ten heavy guns was recommended for Mathias Point, that bluff headland commanding the waters of the Potomac for more than a mile. Before work was begun, June 26th, Commander Ward detailed a party from the Resolute, which he accompanied. to seize and hold the Point, and erect a Federal battery. The detail landed. but were met by Virginia troops under Colonel R. M. Mayo, and driven back to the boats with heavy loss, Commander Ward among the killed. The Virginia troops held the Point, and a heavy battery was erected there. In September and October four heavy batteries, mounting in all twenty guns, were constructed at Evansport, near the mouth of Quantico creek. These swept the Potomae, which was but a mile and a half wide at this point, and with channel near the Virginia shore.
The batteries at Acquia creek, Mathias Point and Evansport were practically a blockade of the Potomac waters, and the blockade was maintained through the entire winter following. This was not only a serious inconvenience to the Federal authorities at Washington, and to the residents of that city, but also had its effect at the North. The New York Tribune, of March 1, 1862, said: "There has been no safe communication by water between this city and the capital of this nation during all this time-a period of six months. This is one of the
1
1
419
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
most humiliating of all the national disgraces to which we have been compelled to submit. It has been most damaging to us in the eyes of the world," etc.
Shortly after these batteries were unmasked, a small steamer, the George Page, which had been captured by the Confederates, was armed and renamed the City of Richmond. The Federal authorities. appre- hending an invasion of Maryland from the vicinity of Acquia creek, sent a division from the Army of the Potomac to the Maryland shore of the Potomac. These troops camped a mile or so back from the river, from Port Tobacco, opposite Acquia creek, to within about twenty miles of Washington. During the winter of 1861-2 the saucy little City of Richmond made several dashes across the river, shelling these camps, keeping up the fears of a Confederate landing in Maryland. aiding also in checking navigation of the river. This boat was burned by Confederate orders in March, 1862, in Quantico creek, when the troops and guns were removed from the batteries of the lower Potomac to Fredericksburg.
Other fortifications erected in the summer of 1861 and winter of 1861-2 were: batteries at Harper's Ferry, covering Bolivar, and ap- proaches by the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers; batteries at Lowery's and Accoheek Points ( Fort Lowery ), Gray's Point, Cherry Point, guard- ing the Rappahannock river; batteries at Gloucester Point, West Point and Yorktown, guarding the York river. These, and other batteries constructed to guard the Potomac, York and Rappahannock rivers, were manned mainly by infantry troops and commanded by naval officers. In the spring of 1862 the Confederate base was changed from the Potomac to the Rappahannock; from York river to the Chickahom- iny. The troops and guns were transferred, and batteries along the Potomac and York abandoned.
THE ST. NICHOLAS.
The St. Nicholas, of Baltimore, was a sidewheel steamer of about. twelve hundred tons, plying regularly between Baltimore and George- town, D. C., and carrying supplies to the Pawnee, of the Potomac flotilla. Its capture for Confederate service was planned and executed by Richard Thomas, of St. Mary's County, Maryland, a young gentleman in sympathy, as were so many residents of that state, with the cause of the South. The capture was thus effected: Mr. Thomas, in female attire, and personating a French lady, took passage on the St. Nicholas on Friday, June 28, 1861. Of medium height and light weight, and speaking French with a good accent, he was able to carry his disguise without awakening any suspicion. At different landings of the boat, the few whom he had trusted with his plans, and who were to assist
420
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
him, came on board as passengers. Among these was Captain Geo. N. Hollins, who had resigned from the United States navy, and was to command the St. Nicholas if her capture was made. When the steamer had left Point Lookout landing a mile or so behind, and was headed for Georgetown, Mr. Thomas threw off his disguise, appearing armed. and in Zonave costume. Surrounded by about twenty-five " pas- sengers," who also were transformed into armed Zouaves, he demanded the surrender of the boat. Its officers, the crew being unarmed, ac- cepted the situation, and Mr. Thomas took possession of the steamer. The alarm of the genuine passengers was quieted with the assurance that they should be treated with every courtesy and landed at the earliest moment possible; the officers and crew were confined in the hold, the lights were extinguished, and the steamer headed for the Virginia shore.
At 3:30 the next morning she stopped at the wharf at month of Cone river, where she took on board some Confederate States naval officers, part of the First Tennessee Infantry, and sailors from Yorktown, wait- ing there by previous arrangement. Captain Hollins then took com- mand of the boat. The intention was to bear down from that point on the Pawnee, and with these reinforcements take possession of that boat with or without a fight, as might be. This capture was feasible, as the St. Nicholas was allowed to come alongside the Pawnee with supplies unchallenged every trip. But a delay at Cone river for the arrival of the infantry gave time for the Pawnee to receive notice of the capture of the St. Nicholas, and the plan of surprise and capture was frustrated, the Pawnee retreating toward Washington.
On June 29th, Captain Hollins, with the St. Nicholas, captured three vessels: the brig Monticello, from Brazil to Baltimore, cargo 3,500 bags of coffee; the schooner Mary Pierce, Boston to Washington with 200 tons of ice on board; schooner Margaret, Alexandria to Staten Island, with cargo of 270 tons of coal. On the Monticello was also found important mail and dispatches revealing the plans of the United States squadron off Brazil, which was promptly forwarded to Rich- mond. Lieutenant Simms, Confederate States navy, took the Monti- cello up the Rappahannock river, where she was unloaded, after which hor former crew wore permitted to take her back to her owners in Baltimore. Lieutenant R. D. Minor, Virginia navy, took the Mary Pierce to Fredericksburg, where ber cargo of ice sold for eight thousand dollars. Lieutenant Robert D. Thorburn, Virginia navy, took tom- porary command of the Margaret. The St. Nicholas and the two schooners were a valuable addition to the Confederate naval force. the captured cargoes were highly appreciated, and, altogether, the service rendered in the two days by Mr. Thomas and Captain Hollins, with
1
T
1
421
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
their assistants, was not only brilliant and inspiriting, but of great value. The St. Nicholas remained in Confederate service until burned with many other vessels at Fredericksburg, when that city was evacu- ated. Captain Hollins was transferred, July 10, 1861, to command of the naval defenses of the James river.
On July 1, 1861, Governor Letcher, in recognition of Mr. Thomas' services, issued a commission as colonel of Virginia volunteers to him, under the name of Richard Thomas Zarnova, and enlistments were begun for a regiment of Zouaves to be commanded by him. Colonel Thomas- Zarnova, elated by his success and the resultant praise, conceived the idea of repeating the exploit. He returned to Baltimore and took pas- sage, July 7th, on the Mary Washington, with friends who were to assist him in her capture. He was recognized and made prisoner on the boat, near Annapolis, and confined at Fort MeHenry, where he was treated with great rigor, and made several unsuccessin! attempts to escape. On December 3, 1861, he was transferred to Fort Lafayette. and held pris- oper in close confinement there until released by exchange in April, 1863. It was the first intention of the Federal Government to refuse him rec- ognition as a prisoner of war, General Dix having officially recommended that he be treated as " a traitor and a spy." Only the vigorous protest of Governor Letcher and of the Virginia legislature against such treatment of one holding commission asa Virginia officer, accompanied by threat of retaliation, saved him from this fate. He returned to Rich- mond after his release, but took no further active part in the war, hav- ing suffered in mind and body from his long and close confinement.
DEFENSES ALONG THE JAMES, NANSEMOND AND ELIZABETH RIVERS.
On April 18, 1861, Governor Letcher appointed Major-General Will- iam B. Taliaferro, of the state militia, to the command " of the state troops which are now or may be assembled at the city of Norfolk." Robert B. Pegram and Catesby apR. Jones were appointed captains in the navy and ordered to Norfolk, Captain Pegram to "assume com- mand of the naval station, with authority to organize naval defenses, enroll and enlist seamen and marines, and temporarily appoint war- rant officers, and to do and perform whatever may be necessary to pre- serve and protect the property of the commonwealth and of the citi -. zens of Virginia." The land and naval forces were instructed to co- operate. These three repaired to Norfolk on the same day, General Taliaferro accompained by Major Nat. Tyler and Captain Henry Heth, of his staff.
The only troops then, or until after the evacuation, in Norfolk, were two companies, the " Norfolk Blues" and the " Portsmouth Grays." On Saturday evening, the 20th, after the Federal troops had aban-
422
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
doned the navy yard, some four hundred state volunteers arrived from l'etersburg; the next day the " Richmond Grays" reported to General Taliaferro, and on Monday three companies from Georgia.
After the evacuation Commodore French Forrest took command of the navy yard, and General Walter Gwynn succeeded General Taliaferro in command of the land forces. Preparations for coast defense were at once begun, naval officers superintending the construction of batter- ies, all available state force detailed to the work. The necessity for this was obvious. The estuary of Hampton Roads, receiving the wa- ters of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers, and their out- let to Chesapeake bay, was protected by the guns of Fortress Mon- roe. Its safe and commodions harbor was sure to become a rendez- vous for Federal vessels, and vessels commanding Hampton Roads waters would not only blockade Virginia ports, but could at any time, if unopposed, descend upon her coast, ascend her rivers, and lay waste or invest her coast and river cities. Upon the JJames was Richmond, the capital of the state, soon to be the Confederate States capital. Upon opposite banks of the Elizabeth were Portsmouth and Norfolk, and, just above Portsmouth, nearly opposite Norfolk, the navy yard. Up the Nansemond was Suffolk, the point where the Norfolk & Peters- burg railroad crossed the river, which, if seized by Federal troops, would isolate Norfolk and enable the Federals to regain the navy yard they had just abandoned.
The work of fortifying was pushed with all possible expedition and with all available means. Before the winter of 1861-2 was over a line of river batteries and forts for coast defense wasestablished. Alongthe Elizabeth, from the guns mounted at Fort Norfolk and a battery between the fort and the wharf, were batteries at Lambert's Point, Tan- ner's Creek, and extending to Sewell Point on one bank of the river ; on the other, batteries at the Naval Hospital, at Penner's Point, and twenty guns on Craney island, off Wise's Point. Bushy Point and Sol- ler's Point had batteries also. Near the mouth of the Nansemond were batteries at Town Point and Pig Point on one side. at Cedar Point and Barrel Point on the other; also at Pagan Creek. James river was de- fended by batteries at Jamestown, Jamestown Island, Mulberry Point, Harden Bluff. Fort Powhatan guarded the ascent of the Appomattox river. The Federals, in addition to the commanding defense of Fortress Monroe, had Fort Wool at the Rip Raps and powerful land batteries at Newport News.
On May 1, 1861, Captain Pondergrast, commanding the Home squadron, United States navy, reported to the Federal authorities that he had sufficient naval force off Fortress Monroe to blockade Virginia ports, and from that date open communication between
-...
1
MD
423
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS.
Virginia and Northern States ceased. May 24th, Brigadier-General Benjamin Huger succeeded General Gwyn in command of infantry troops in and around Norfolk. May 21st, Colonel J. B. Magruder, of the Provisional Army of Virginia, was placed in command of military operations and forces on the peninsula, with instructions to provide for the safety of Yorktown and Jamestown.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.