History of Norfolk County, Virginia : and representative citizens, 1637-1900, Part 72

Author: Stewart, William H. (William Henry), 1838-1912
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1054

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GEN. RICHARD LUCIAN PAGE

Died August 9, 1901. He was the most con- spicuous figure in Norfolk. He had won dis- tinction in the old navy and had also achieved high honors in the Confederate Army. In personal appearance General Page was tall and commanding and for many years his resem- blance to his illustrious kinsman, Gen. Robert E. Lee, was subject of remark by those who were familiar with the personality of the two soldiers.

While General Page was a man of great dignity, and in a marked degree, "a gentle- man of the Old School." he was always urbane and considerate in manner and never lost his interest and sympathy for the young. This beautiful trait of his character especially en- deared him to young people. This characteris- tic led him to take a deep interest in matters of educating and training the young. For four years he was superintendent of the public schools of Norfolk, and although it had been

many years since he retired from that position, he took an active interest in public-school edu- cation, even after he had arrived at an age when the majority of men can no longer find i pleasure in public affairs.

General Page was an earnest and consistent member of the church, and for many years was the senior warden of Christ Protestant Epis- copal Church of Norfolk, and to the end of his life was a regular attendant upon the church services.

General Page, who had gained renown for his distinguished service in the naval and mili- tary annals of the Confederate States, was born in Clarke County, Virginia, in 1807, and was in his 94th year at the time of his death. He was a descendant of John Page, who came to Virginia from England in the early days. Gen- eral Page was a son of William Byrd and Anne Page and the grandson of Henry Lee, the father of Gen. Henry Lee, the famous "Light- horse Harry," who was the father of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

He entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1824, serving on the sloop-of- war "John Adams," of the West India Squad- ron, under Commodore Porter, with whom he made two cruises. In 1825 he was transferred to the frigate "Brandywine" under Commodore Morris and helped to carry Gen- eral La Fayette back to France. From 1842 to 1843 he was ordnance officer at the Norfolk Navy Yard. Afterward he acted as executive officer and lieutenant commander of the frigate "Independence," flagship of Commodore Shu- brick during the Mexican War.

Following this war, he returned to the Nor- folk Navy Yard and did ordnance duty for two years. From 1852 to 1854 he served with the African Squadron, after which he was pro- moted to commander in September, 1855 ; then he returned to ordnance duty at the Navy Yard, and became a member of the Retiring Board. At the outbreak of the Confederate War, he was on duty at the Navy Yard here

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to which he had been recalled a year previous, and on the secesion of Virginia, he resigned his rank and office and was appointed aide-de- camp to Governor Letcher with special duties in the organization of the State Navy.

He superintended the erection of the forti- fications at the mouth of the James River and those on the Nansemond River and Pagan Creek. Until the evacuation of Norfolk, he served as ordnance officer at the Navy Yard, then, being promoted from commander to cap- tain, established the ordnance and construction depot at Charlotte, North Carolina, where he remained. March 1, 1864, he was commis- sioned brigadier general in the Provisional Army, and assigned to the command of the outer defenses of Mobile Bay. He established his headquarters at Fort Morgan, where he was summoned to surrender by Farragut's flag-lieutenant and General Granger's chief- of-staff.

In the face of overwhelming odds, he gal- lantly replied that he would defend the post to the last extremity. For the next two weeks the fight was waged in a desultory way both day and night, and on the morning of August. the 22nd, a furious bombardment began, over 3.000 shells being thrown into the fort during 12 hours, but General Page and his heroic men kept up the fight with all their power. The cit- adel of the fort took fire at 9 o'clock at night and the walls were repeatedly breached by the enemy's shells and his best guns were disabled.

On the following morning, after spiking all serviceable guns and throwing all the remain- ing powder overboard, the General capitulated with full honors of war.

The defense of Fort Morgan under the command of General Page is one of the most celebrated instances of heroism in the history of the war. After the capitulation he was held as a prisoner of war until September. 1865, and while in prison he was mistaken for Gen. Robert E. Lee by the enemy.

CAPT. ROBERT BAKER PEGRAM,

Of Norfolk, died on the 25th of October, 1894. He was born in Dinwiddle County, Virginia, December 10, 1811, and at the age of 18 years entered the United States Navy as a midship- man on the sloop-of-war "Boston." He was made passed-midshipman and ordered to the "John Adams" in 1835 and in 1840 was as- signed to the Naval Observatory in Washing- ton. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1841 and served on the "Saratoga" from 1841 until the close of the Mexican war. By his gallant conduct in the attack on a flotilla of pirates on August 4, 1855, at Hong Kong with Captain Fellows of the British Navy he received the thanks of the British government and the State of Virginia presented him with a sword inscribed : "A mother's gift to her devoted son." Lieutenant Pegram served at the Nor- folk Navy Yard from 1856 to 1858, after- ward on the "Water Witch" and "Bibb." While attached to the "Bibb," Virginia passed the ordinance of secession and he immediately resigned his commission in the United States Navy. He was made a captain in the Virginia Navy. He served the Confederacy and at the close of the war he was on duty in Europe. He returned home, was made a railroad su- perintendent, and afterward general agent of. a life insurance company.

CAPT. CHARLES FENTON MERCER SPOTTSWOOD

Died in Norfolk on the 6th day of August, 1892, in the 80th year of his age. He entered the United States Navy away back in the "twenties" and while serving in the Mediter- ranean Sea married a Spanish lady-Miss Aquimbau-at Port Mahon, Island of Min- orca. He was stationed at the Gosport Navy Yard at the breaking out of the Confederate War and was on duty there after he entered the Confederate service. He was on duty for a

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considerable time in connection with the ord- nance work at Charlotte, North Carolina.

Captain Spottswood was a man of sterling character and of a retiring disposition. He was a native Virginian and spent much of his life in Norfolk, where he was held in the high- est esteen.

CAPT. JAMES WALLACE COOKE

Was born in the year 1812. In 1828, at the age of 16, he was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy, and immediately re- ceived orders to join the frigate "Guerriere." In 1834 he passed his examination. He soon rose to the rank of lieutenant and served with honor in that capacity until the breaking out of the war. When the Southern States se- ceded Captain Cooke resigned his position in the old navy and entered the Confederate Navy. By his activity and bravery he soon rose to the rank of commander, and before the close of the war to that of commodore, for val- nable service rendered the government while in command of the "Albermarle." His achieve- ments with her is one of the brightest pages in history. After the close of the war he re- turned to Portsmouth, where he died in June, 1869.

HON. GEORGE BLOW

Died on the end of May, 1894. He was born in Sussex County. Virginia, on the 15th of May, 1813, and at the age of seven removed to Norfolk with his grandmother. He was edu- cated at William and Mary College and took a law course at the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the Norfolk bar in 1833, where he practiced law until 1840, when he removed to Texas and was elected to the con- gress of that republic in 1841. At the expira- tion of his term, he returned to Norfolk, where he remained until his death. He was a mem- ber of the Sovereign Convention of Virginia in 1860, and at. the beginning of the Confeder-

ate War was made lieutenant-colonel of the 4Ist Regiment, Virginia Infantry, but resigned when his troops were turned over to the Con- federate States. After the war, in 1870, he was elected judge of the First Judicial District Court and served two terms. He was an able, upright and just judge, and retired with the entire respect of the bar.

CAPT. JOHN JULIUS GUTIIRIE,

Of Portsmouth, who was one of our naval he- roes, lost his life in endeavoring to rescue the men from the U. S. S. "Huron," which was lost off the coast of North Carolina Novem- ber 25, 1877. He entered the navy as a mid- shipman in 1834; he went with the South at the breaking out of the Confederate War and served with courage and honor all through the four years. After the war he was made su- perintendent of the life-saving service of this district and sacrificed his life in the discharge of his duty. He married Louisa S. Spratley, of Portsmouth. His honored, career in the navy is being continued, as it were, in the per- son of his son. Dr. Joseph A. Guthrie, who is a surgeon in the U. S. Navy. Captain Guthrie was born in Washington, North Carolina, April 15, 1815.

CAPT. CARTER BRAXTON POINDEXTER

Died in February, 1893, when he was nearly 77 years of age. He was in the United States Navy at the breaking out of the Confederate War and resigned to enter the service of Vir- ginia. He served gallantly in the Confederate Navy and had attained the rank of captain be- fore the close of the war: He lived and died a true Southerner in heart.

COL. WILLIAM WHITE

Died on the 22nd of June. 1894, at the age of 72 years. He was born in Norfolk County, was a student at Yale College, graduated in

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medicine at Richmond and Philadelphia and for years practiced his profession at Deep Creek. Ile was a stanch okl line Whig. He represented Portsmouth and Norfolk County in the Virginia State Convention in 1861, and there vigorously opposed the secession of his State. But immediately on the passage of the ordinance of secession he tendered his ser- vices to Governor Letcher and was appointed a major in the State forces. He served suc- cessively in the 14th Regiment. Virginia In- fantry, as major, lieutenant-colonel and after the death of the gallant Colonel Hodges, at Gettysburg, was promoted to colonel. He re- ceived a severe wound at Gettysburg, where he behaved with distinguished gallantry. He was a man noted for vigor of intellect and great force of character.

CAPT. WILLIAM HI. MURDAUGH

Was born in the city of Portsmouth on the 7th of August. 1827, and died Saturday, De- cember 29. 1901. in his native city. In the year 1841 he was appointed a midshipman il the United States Navy by President Tyler. He served through the Mexican War on the U. S. S. "Potomac." Commodore Aulie. In the year 1840 he served as passed midshipman and master under Capt. Dehaven in the famous Grinnell Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, and received the Victoria medal for distinguished services rendered. He con- tinued in the naval service of the United States until the hostilities between the States broke out in war. Upon the secession of his native State, while holding the rank of lieutenant, he resigned from the United States service and offered his sword to the cause of the South.

He proceeded to Richmond in June, 1861. and reported for duty and was assigned with rank of lieutenant. His first duty was that of making surveys in the James River. estab- fishing batteries and obstructing the channels. After discharging this duty Lieutenant Mur- daugh was with Commodore Barron assigned

to the defense of North Carolina, where he was ordered to the command of a vessel, but before he took command a battle at Fort Hat- teras was fought, in which he took a conspic- nous part, and was very seriously wounded.

Being promoted to the rank of captain, he was, while disabled for active duty, on ordnance duty at the Navy Yard here. He was with Capt. French Forrest in the tug "Harmony." in Hampton Roads, during the two days' light.

When it was determined to evacuate Nor- folk and Portsmouth, he was sent to select a place for an ordnance depot. Hle selected Charlotte, North Carolina, and his judgment in such selection was signally vindicated by the fact that the point selected was never, until the surrender in possession of the enemy. From Charlotte he was ordered to command the steamer "Beaufort," on the James River. and afterward was sent abroad to purchase ordnance supplies, for which important service he was especially fitted, possessing admirable tact and judgment and a high intelligence. So well was this work performed that it excited high encomiums, and he was to have had a leading part in the most important service, but the war came to an end before the plans were matured.

.At the close of the war he went to South America and engaged in business, but returned to Portsmouth after a few years. He was for many. years superintendent of the Nor- folk County Ferries. He was appointed by President Cleveland supervising inspector of steam vessels for this district. He was a mem- ber of the Board of Harbor Commissioners for many years and was a vestryman of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church 30 years.

LIEUT. DULANY . FORREST

Was a Marylander by birth and was commis- sioned a midshipman in the United States Navy in 1841. His father was also in the navy and participated in the battle of Lake Erie, and was presented by Congress with a

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sword for distinguished services rendered therein. Lieutenant Forrest, previous to his entering the army, had served in the Texan Navy and subsequently served in the Mexican War. On January 6, 1853, he was united in marriage to Sarah Bruce Butt, sister of Dr. H. F. Butt, of Portsmouth, Virginia. Return- ing from a cruise to the East Indies in 1861 on the U. S. S. "Hartford," he (with other Southern officers) resigned his commission and tendered his services to the Confederate Navy, which were accepted. Whilst in com- mand of Fort St. Philip, near Wilmington, North Carolina, he received a stroke of paraly- sis, which rendered him unfit for further ser- vice, and from the effects of which he died in Oxford, North Carolina, August 10, 1863.

CAPT. JAMES BARRON HOPE.

Through his maternal ancestor, James Bar- ron, the elder, who organized the Virginia Co- lonial Navy, of which he was commander-in- chief during the Revolution, and through James Barron, the younger, a person of rank and distinction in his day, there came as herit- age that unswerving devotion to Virginia for which James Barron Hope was always remark- able. I may say that his very heart throbbed in unison with the heart of his native State and through the length and breadth of the South he has been declared "Virginia's laureate." For though he was many men in one, he stood chief as poet.

His father, a handsome, talented man, was Wilton Hope. Esq., of "Betliel," Elizabeth City County, Virginia ; his mother, Jane Bar- ron, an' attractive gentlewoman of the Old School, warm and generous in her feelings and of quick and lively sympathies. She wielded a clever,ready pen, and was a personage in her family. She brought her son into the world on the 23d of Marchi. 1829, at the residence of her father, Commodore James Barron, the younger, who then commanded the Gosport Navy Yard, and he was not only the child of

her material, but also of her spiritual being, closely knit, not only in mutual affection, but in confidence, in feeling, in tastes and aspira- tions.

To his grandfather the little namesake was an object of tender solicitude (some of the let- ters that passed between the two are very quaint ), and it was while the Commodore was in command at Philadelphia that his grand- son gained a part of his very early instruction in Germantown. His education was continued in Hampton, Virginia, at the academy, under a master, John B. Carney, Esq., whom he ten- derly revered and whom he held as a beloved friend, through all his later years, while July, 1847, saw him graduated with the degree of A. B. from William and Mary College. At this ancient seat of learning originated the diffi- culties which finally led to the duel between himself and J. Pembroke Jones. Mr. Jones was accounted one of the bravest and most promis- ing officers of the navy. Mr. Hope was an or- nament to the law, the soul of honor, without fear and full of the promise that his riper years developed ; both the flower of Hampton's youth, the pride and promise of the place, so that the town blazed up with excitement and the vigilance of the authorities knew no sleep- ing. Many, indeed, were the obstacles to be overcome to bring the affair to its culmination. But overcome they were and the three special constables who arrived on the scene, just in time as they hoped, could do naught but stand unwilling witnesses to the duel fought upon the beach near Fortress Monroe, in April, 1849. Both fell dangerously wounded. Then a deep concern and anxiety pervaded all classes of the community, and the steamer that brought Mr. Hope up from Old Point was met at Hampton wharf by a throng of friends, some of whom bore his litter, while the others es- corted it, and thus he was carried to his home.

There he fought with death and conquered and then became secretary to his uncle, Com- modore Samuel Barron, from whose vessel, the "Pennsylvania," he was transferred to the

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"Cayenne" and in 1852. in that sloop-of-war. made a cruise to the West Indies.

In 1856 he was elected Commonwealth's attorney of Elizabeth City County, which po- sition he held up to the breaking out of the war. Already Mr. Hope, as "Henry Ellen," had been reckoned a valued contributor to The Literary Messenger. Already the South- ern press was eloquent in his praise and he was hailed "Old Hampton's Bard." The next year Lippincott brought out "Leoni di Monota" and other poems. The volume was cordially no- ticed by the Southern critics of the time, not for its central poem alone. but for several of its minor ones and for "The Charge at · Balaklava." which G. P. R. James-as have others since-declared unsurpassed by Tenny- son's "Charge of the Light Brigade.

When May 13, 1857. the 250th anniversary of the English settlement at Jamestown, was celebrated he stood poet. as also at the base of Crawford's statue of Washington in Capitol Square. Richmond, February 22, 1858; and in July of that same year pronounced a poem be- - fore the Phi Beta Kappa society and graduat- ing classes of his alma mater. The next year these recited poems, with others of a miscel- laneous nature, were published. The verdict was that his promise was fulfilling itself. The majestic pictures he now threw upon his can- vas were painted in fadeless tints.

Then came the war and at once he cast aside the pen for the sword. He served throughout the struggle. attained the rank of captain and was paroled at the capitulation of Johnston's army at Greensboro. North Caro- lina. With his old home in ashes, with shat- tered fortunes and impaired health, he returned to Virginia and took up existence anew in Norfolk. He embarked in journalism and successfully edited the Norfolk Day-Book, un- der its Democratic auspices, the Norfolk L'ir- ginian and in 1873. founded the Norfolk Landmark, of which he was the head at the time of his death. His opinions, based upon principle, were his own. Tiis championship

could not be bought. His editorials were original, versatile and brilliant and often shook off prose to rise to the beauty and dignity, if not the actual measure of verse. I have heard it said that he led the Democratic press throughout the State and it was especially in the struggle between the "Founders" and the "Readjusters" that he showed himself most vigilant and most sagacious.

In 1880 it was warmly urged upon him that he was the man to unite the two factions ; but he positively protested against and declined the nomination for Congress in his district and advocated the renomination of Hon. John Goode.

Journalism was not wholly congenial to him. The relentless call for "copy" vexed the loftier fancies that surged through his brain. His health failed more and more, but his was the spirit of a giant and often he bore a physi- cal agnoy, well nigh past the bearing, with a patience and fortitude wonderful to remem- ber, and hid away his pain, even from his near- est friends, under a beautiful solicitude for others. It was out of this suffereing, out of the toil and distraction of his newspaper life, that he had sent into print ( 1874) "Little Stories for Little People." and four years later. "Un- der the Empire, or the Story of Madelon;" that he had written the ode delivered at the unveiling of the monument raised to Annie Lee by the ladies of Warren County. North Carolina; delivered a memorial ode in War- renton. Virginia, and recited another at the Virginia Military Institute, as also the poem at Lynchburg's celebration of its founding.

Thus he became closely linked with the city of his adoption, whose best interests he promoted both by voice and pen. He declined the collectorship of her port because he deemed that through journalism he could better serve her. As superintendent of her public schools. these institutions attained the largest enroll- ment of pupils and the highest standard of ex- cellence shown since their opening in 1857. He was the first president of her first successful

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musical society : first commander of her camp of Confederate veterans, the poet of her first Memorial Day when she, as did her sister city, time-honored and hospitable old Portsmouth, upon a like occasion, called forth some of the most stirring lines ever penned.

Congress chose him poet for the Yorktown celebration in 1881. and his metrical address. "Arms and the Man," with various sonnets was published the next year. Brilliant in imaginary and glowing with color, the flower of his genius, its noble measures only revealed their full beauty when they fell from the lips of him who framed them, and it was under this pell that one of those who had thronged about him on the 19th of October cried out, "Now, I understand the power by which the old Greek swayed the men of their generation."

Again his State called upon him to weave among her annals the laurels of his verse at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument erected in Richmond to Robert E. Lee. The corner-stone was laid in October, 1887, but the poet's voice had been stilled forever. He died September 15th, as he had wished to die, "in harness," and at home. Death was kind in that he came swift and painless. His poem. save for the after softening touches, had been finished the previous day and was recited in Richmond by Capt. William Gordon M'Cabe. Many pronounced it his master-piece and its strain now pathetic. now majestic, again noble, or tender or impassioned, has been called the "Song of the Dying Swan."

He has been frequently described as "a slender, graceful man, with a carefully kept beard and a manner as courtly as that of Sir Roger de Coverly," words which, though fitly applied. are but as the bare outlines of a picture, for he was the embodiment of what was best in the Old South. This courtliness, that like some subtle essence escapes descrip- tion, gifted him with a rare charm. There was charm, too, in his pale face which, in con- versation. flashed out of its deep thoughtful- ness into vivid animation. His fine head was

crowned with soft hair, fast whitening before its time. His eyes shone under his broad, white forehead wise and serene, until his fearless spirit, or his lofty enthusiasm awoke to fire their grey depths. His was a face that women trusted and little children looked up into with smiles. Men called him friend and learned the meaning of that name, and he drew and linked men to him from all ranks and conditions of life

He was backward and modest in the ad- vancement of his own interests, but he spared no pains when the welfare of others was at stake. In very truth did he love his fellow men-with greatest tenderness those who suf- fered-and his faith in God was that of a little child.

No sketch could approach justice toward Captain Hope without at least a brief review of his domestic life; for his relations with his household were peculiarly beautiful. In 1857 he had marricd Annie Beverly Whiting, of Hampton, Virginia. Hers was the face and form to take captive his poet's fancy, and in after years he loved to describe her to their chil- dren as "a tiny, fairy-like creature whose lovely face was so animated and eves were so bright that she seemed to sparkle all over." She pos- sessed a character as beautiful as her person ; a courage and strength of w'll far out of pro- portion to her dainty shape, and an intellect of masculine robustness. Often the poet availed himself of his wife's nice discernment; often the editor brought his work to the table of his library that he might labor with the faces around him that he loved, for their union was a very congenial one, and when two daughters came to bless it, as husband and father, Cap- tain Hope poured out the treasures of his heart, his mind and soul. To his children he was a wise teacher, a tender guide, an unfailing friend, the most delightful of companions. His gentleness was that of a woman ; his sympathy for and his understanding of young people never aged and he had a circle of dear and fa- miliar friends of varying ages that usually

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History of Norfolk County, Virginia : and representative citizens, 1637-1900, Part 72

Author: Stewart, William H. (William Henry), 1838-1912 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1054

Author: Stewart, William H. (William Henry), 1838-1912
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1054