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Born in Rockbridge Co., Va., on 6th July 1826 or on 5th October 1835 (sources vary). Only son of Mat[t]hew White. Graduated from Washington College in 1855. Farmer in Rockbridge Co. in 1860. Captain, Co.C, 1st Va. Cavalry: 18th April 1861. Resigned on 11th January 1862, “in consequence of a misunderstanding with his superior officers.” Another version has him resigning on 6th January 1862 because of poor health. Enlisted in Co.H, 14th Va. Cavalry, on 14th May 1862. Hired Richard F. Breedlove as a substitute, and was discharged. Was murdered near Lexington by Federal troops on 13th June 1864. He had returned to his farm after his discharge from the 14th, but when Hunter’s force advanced from Staunton he joined McCausland’s command and fought with pickets from the 14th Va. Cavalry on 11th June. He was captured at or near his farm on the same day: “The Yankee soldiers…took Captain White a short distance into the woods and shot him, and one of them on the evening of the same day gave to Mrs. Cameron, a lady of the neighborhood, information by which she was enabled to send out and find the body. There is but little doubt that the reason for the killing of Captain White was the fact that he had been engaged with our troops in resisting the advance of the enemy by which one of the Yankee soldiers had been killed. The Yankees called him a bushwhacker. He was not bushwhacker in the proper sense. He was with our organized troops acting under the orders of commissioned officers. He was discharging that duty which the country expects every good citizen to perform…when en route in charge of a squad of Yankee soldiers to the scene of his murder, in passing a lady relative, he requested her to say to his friends if he never returned, ‘that he died as he lived, true to the Southern cause.’ He was a patriotic, generous, and brave man.” Cornelia Peake McDonald noted in her diary: “At sunset we saw a man led by with a file of soldiers. The children came in and told me that it was Capt. Matt. White; that they were taking him out to shoot him. I thought they knew nothing about it and gave the matter no attention….[the next morning] some officers who had stayed all night at Mr. Matthew White’s and breakfasted there, had in reply to the anxious inquiries of the poor old mother about her son who had been arrested some days before, assured her that he was in the jail just opposite her house; that he was temporarily detained, but would be immediately released. That afternoon as I sat by the window I saw a wagon pass on its way up the street, and in it a stiff, straight form covered with a sheet. It was poor Matt White on his way to his mother. He had been taken out to the woods and shot as the children had said, and had been left where he fell. Mrs. Cameron’s daughters hearing the firing, went down to the place when the party had left, and finding the poor body, stayed there by it all night to keep it from being mangled by animals. No men were near to do it, and they kept their watch till word could be sent to his parents where to find him; and that was not done till Tuesday evening, for no one could pass to the town till the troops had left. The next day, Wednesday, was his funeral. Everybody who knew the family was there, I among the rest. We went to the cemetery and saw the poor fellow buried, and I turned and walked sadly away…” Buried in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, Lexington. [Driver, 14th Virginia Cavalry, p.190; Official Records, Series II, Volume 7, pp.430-432; Gwin, A Woman’s Civil War, pp.188-190; The Virginia Regimental Histories Series(c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com]
Last edited by bill_torrens; 07-23-2005 at 01:19 PM.
Born in Winchester, Va., on 14th April 1844. Son of David W.Barton. Entered V.M.I. in July 1860. Sgt-Major, 33rd Va. Inf.: 6th July 1861. Wounded in side at 1st Manassas on 21st July 1861. Captured at Kernstown on 23rd March 1862. P.O.W. in Fort Delaware, where he received a visit from his parents and was even fitted for a new uniform: “I soon received a splendid gray uniform, perhaps the only one made in Philadelphia.” Exchanged on 12th August 1862. Lieut., Co.K, 2nd Va. Inf.: 1st October 1862. On 7th March 1863, upon the recommendation of Henry Kyd Douglas, he was appointed Lieut. & A.A.A.G. to Bull Paxton. Promoted Captain & A.A.G. on 28th March 1863. Wounded in both shoulders at Chancellorsville on 3rd May 1863. Was with Paxton when the latter was killed: “The two men were running toward another sector when Barton heard a thud. Looking back, he saw Paxton reel and fall, face down, to the ground. The general tried to raise himself with extended arms; Barton turned him over on his back. Now oblivious to the fury of the battle around him, the commander groped for the breast pocket where he kept his Bible and pictures of his wife and children. Barton thought he heard him mumble, ‘Tie up my arm,’ but he never was able to know for certain, for in a moment Paxton was dead.” Captain & A.A.G. to J.A. Walker: 5th September 1863. On Christmas Day, 1863, “after a hearty meal in a nearby private private home, Walker invited his lieutenants to his tent for some liquid refreshment. Randolph Barton wrote that he consumed several cups from ‘a bucketful of vile stuff, which we called egg-nog, and which sent me to bed with my boots on.’ ” Captain & A.A.I.G. to Walker: 15th February 1864. Wounded in arm at Spotsylvania on 12th May 1864. Captain & A.A.G. to William Terry: June 1864. Captain & A.A.A.G. to Zebulon York: August-September 1864. Wounded in leg at Winchester on 19th September 1864. Writing of that battle, he recalled: “I remember quite well the bad impression made upon me when, in assisting to rally the men, I found officers, whom I had never seen flinch before, walking to the rear with their swords under their arms as if they had had enough.” Wounded in left leg at Hatcher's Run on 6th February 1865. Major & A.A.I.G. to J.A. Walker: 1st April 1865. At Appomattox, “on the morning of April 9th, by direction of Gen. John B. Gordon, he with two other officers went through the skirmish lines to ask a cessation of hostilities. Entering the Federal lines they were escorted to General Custer, from whom they received a curt and insolent response.” Moved to Baltimore in 1866, where he practiced law "under the auspices of" Col. Charles Marshall of R.E.Lee's staff. “Life has brought to him well-deserved success and happiness, but nothing has eclipsed the pride and pleasure he has derived from the consciousness of participating creditably in the army of the Confederate States.” Died on 15th March 1921, in Baltimore. Buried in Druid Hill Cemetery, Pikesville, Md. [Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, pp.69-70; Robertson, The Stonewall Brigade, pp.187, 215, 234; Johnson, Confederate Military History Of Maryland, pp.191-193.]
Born in 1818. Son of John Woodfin and Mariah Sammons Grady. Resident of Buncombe Co., N.C. Married Myra McDowell. “A wealthy landowner and talented attorney of Asheville.” Zeb Vance read law in his office. In 1853 Augustus W. Merrimon noted in his journal: “John W. Woodfin Esqr. is a man of medium height, a little inclined to corpulency. His appearance indicates the age of about thirty or thirty five years. Mr. W. has been at the Bar about ten or twelve years and has succeeded well. He has more taste for his farm than for his law Office and should he live he will be a fine and an accomplished farmer. He is already one of the best farmers in the Western part of the State. He is fond of fine Stock of which he has a good deal for this country. There is nothing very striking in M. W’s appearance. He has an intelligent face and one that bespeaks great firmness. M. W. is impulsive and always resents an injury at once. He is high minded and honorable and scorns any thing that is low and fawning. He makes a good citizen. His disposition does not seem inclined to political life and his great predelections for his farm will most probably keep him from becomeing a very distinguished lawyer. He is kind and hospitable and is also, fond of pecuniary acquirements.” Captain, Co.G, 1st N.C. Cavalry: 16th May 1861. Resigned soon thereafter. Major, 2nd N.C. Cavalry: 23rd September 1861. Resigned through ill-health on 6th September 1862. Later commanded the 14th N.C. Cav. Bn., and was killed at Marshall, N.C., on 20th October 1863. “The news which came back from the minor engagement there was that John W. Woodfin, the genial and capable lawyer under whom both Vance and Merrimon had read law, and who had managed to become both wealthy and beloved, a hard feat in a region where most persons had little, had led a force of mounted Confederate home guards and had been one of the few to fall in the little battle.”
2nd Lieut., Co.K, 16th Miss. Inf. Captured at the Weldon Railroad on 21st August 1864: “Bryan had started by himself toward the breastworks when a crowd of Yanks rushed upon him and made a grab for his sword. He had pulled loose, and, drawing his sword, shouted, ‘Stand back. I will die before I surrender my sword to a **** Yankee private!’. An officer came running up and said, ‘Lieutenant, you can give it to me; I am a captain.’ Then Jim returned the sword to the scabbard, unhooked it from the belt and presented it in pure Lord Burgoyne style. ‘I want the belt, too, for a souvenir,’ said the captain. ‘It is part of my dress,’ said Jim, ‘and I won’t give it up.’ ‘These are my men,’ stated the captain, ‘and I will have them take it away from you if you don’t give it up.’ Jim did not say a word but took off the belt and rolled it into a ball with the heavy buckle on the outside. Then he hurled it into the captain’s face saying, ‘Take it, you ------!’ When the buckle struck the captain’s face, blood ran as he staggered under the blow.” P.O.W. in Fort Delaware. [Cockrell & Ballard, A Mississippi Rebel In The Army Of Northern Virginia, pp.309-310.]
Born in Alexandria, Va., on 6th April 1820. Son of George Duffey & Rosina Ehlers. Resident of Alexandria, Va. Described as an "expert mechanic and trainman". Also described as a jeweller & silversmith. Lt-Colonel of the Alexandria City Artillery for 20 years before the war. Married Sarah Catherine Steele in Washington D.C. on 1st July 1845. On 29th October 1861 R.G.H.Kean of the Bureau of War wrote:- "The rocket stand was tried yesterday. The inventor, Captain Duffy, says it acted well." Lieut. of Artillery, C.S.A.: 19th May 1862. Captain & O.O.: 23rd December 1862, but this was never confirmed. Reappointed Captain & O.O.: 8th December 1864 [t.r.f. 23rd December 1862]. At Appomattox. E.P.Alexander:- "For emergency, under my own control was held a train of ammunition and battery wagons equipped with tools and expert mechanics for all sorts of repairs from a broken mainspring to a spiked fieldpiece. I was fortunate in securing for superintendent of this train, Major George Duffy, an expert from Alexandria, who became an institution in the army, and remained with it throughout the war." Despite Alexander referring to him as a Major [and R.E.Lee did the same in war-time correspondence], the "Appomattox Paroles" show him as still a Captain when he surrendered there. Alexander also wrote of him:- "Everybody knew old Maj. Geo. Duffey...with his good natured round face and his sympathetic Virginia voice, & I want my children to know him too. He & I will be together - across the river. He has been over a long time already." Made a pair of silver spurs for Robert E. Lee during the war. Post-war jeweller in Alexandria. Died on 10th July 1896. Buried in Methodist Protestant Cemetery. [Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, pp.116-117; Gallagher, Fighting For The Confederacy, p.61; Younger, Inside The Confederate Government, p.14.]
Born in Funkstown, Md. on 13th February 1838 [another source says Breathedsville]. Son of John W. Breathed & Anna Macgill Williams. 5’ 11”, light complexion, blue eyes, dark hair. Attended St. John’s College. Graduated from Maryland Medical College in 1858. Then studied under Dr. James Macgill in Hagerstown. Was a doctor in Missouri in 1861. Pvt., Co.B, 1st Va. Cavalry: 19th April or 31st August 1861. 2nd Lieut.: 18th November 1861. Assigned to the Stuart Horse Artillery two days later. 1st Lieut., Pelham’s Battery: 23rd March 1862. Captain: 9th August 1862. “That young physician, just 22, had chanced to share the same train-seat with [J.E.B.] Stuart, as the two of them had come East to tender their services to Virginia, and after Breathed had volunteered as a private in Company B of the First Virginia Cavalry, he again met Stuart, then Colonel of that regiment. Stuart had urged him, in 1862, to transfer to Pelham's Horse Artillery and had arranged his election as First Lieutenant. The grateful young Breathed could be relied upon to requite kindness with valor.” Major: 27th February 1864. At Spotsylvania on 8th May 1864, “the Federals approached so close that all the pieces were in danger. Three of them got off narrowly….Breathed at the moment was on his horse and had all the men of the fourth gun ready to move it. The oncoming Federals, seeing their prize about to vanish, opened a fusillade. Most of the horses and the drivers of the lead and swing teams were killed or wounded. The driver of the wheel team received a bullet that shattered his arm. Instantly Major Breathed sprang from his mount and, under a heavy fire, cut the traces of the injured horses. That done, he leaped into the saddle of a wheel horse and, with the two animals, drove the gun into the Confederate lines.” At Yellow Tavern, “Jim Breathed had taken his post with Griffin’s guns. During the fierce fighting, he became engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with a Federal officer. Breathed managed to kill his adversary but was wounded himself. He abandoned his own exhausted mount for that of his foe and rode to safety.” At Reams Station on 29th June 1864, “we discovered our much loved Breathed lying on the ground severely wounded, his old battery around him as if to receive his dying benediction. His sufferings were intense and as we gazed on our hero we thought his hours were few: that [in] but a short time his soul would go to meet his commanders, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and the gallant Pelham. As we bent over him he said, ‘Boys, they have got me this time.’ While we were trying to comfort him Surgeon Leigh, who, after making an examination, told Breathed that the wound was not fatal, and that, by good care and nursing he would be able to worry the Yankees a good many times yet. The ball had not penetrated the bowels but was lodged in the walls of the stomach. This encouraging diagnosis cheered Breathed very much. An ambulance was procured and in it we placed him. He ordered O’Brien and Hopkins to ride on as he had heard that some of the enemy’s wagons had been captured, and they could be of service there. This shows the spirit of the man. Badly wounded as he was his thoughts were [on] how to help the cause he loved so well.” At ****ord, on 22nd September 1864, “I was in conversation with Major Breathed…I asked him if he felt safe with his battery, if I moved the squadron in his front, over whose heads his guns were firing? He smiled and said, ‘If “Billy” (Colonel Payne) can hold that bridge – and it looks like he is going to do it – I’ll put a pile of canister near my guns and all hell will never move me from this position. I’ll make a horizontal shot turn in full blast for them to come through; you need not be afraid of my guns.’ ” On 6th April 1865 he was temporarily assigned to the command of the 8th Va. Cavalry. Paroled at Winchester on 24th April 1865. Doctor in Hancock, Md., after the war. Died there on 14th February 1870. Buried in St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Hancock. [Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, I, p.279; ibid, III, p.413; Trout, Galloping Thunder: The Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion, photo facing p.160, pp.470, 547-548, 595, 640; Hartzler, A Band Of Brothers, p.42; The Virginia Regimental Histories Series (c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com]
3rd Lieut., Co.H, 4th Ga. Inf.: 26th April 1861. 2nd Lieut.: 9th May 1861. Resigned on 27th April 1862. The story behind his resignation is to be found in the May 1904 edition of Confederate Veteran, in which Pvts. Maupin & Mosely of Co.H recalled how, in 1861, they dressed some mutton and brought it back to camp, only for Walker to confiscate it and eat it himself. To eak revenge, they went through the same procedure with a dog. Walker again confiscated it and invited various officers to dine with him. “Mosely and Maupin began howling and barking in the guard tent, and Col. George Doles wanted to know why, and had them brought before him to see what they were howling about. They showed the feet of the dog and said, ‘Lieut. W. and friends have eaten dog for dinner’, which at once made vomiting in order. ‘Who ate the dog?’ was a query so conspicuous in the regiment that the officer resigned and went home, to return no more.”
Born in Hanover Co., Va., on 27th May 1840. Educated at Hanover Academy (1856-58) & U.Va. (1858-60). Teacher in Caroline Co.: 1860-61. Sgt., Hanover Artillery: 21st May 1861. Captain: 30th April 1862. On 8th July 1862 a private in his battery wrote that Nelson “and his officers…have proved themselves totally incompetent to command a battery. The company is going to the dogs, and unless something is done, and done very soon, it will go all to pieces. Wash is as brave a man as I ever saw and fears nothing, but bravery alone will not keep up a battery. It requires a hard-working, industrious man of good executive ability; one who never tires, and is always on the lookout for his men and horses. All of these are wanting in him…my mess occupies itself during its leisure time in abusing Wash and his lieutenants for their laziness and want of energy.” On 19th August 1862 the same soldier noted that “Wash Nelson made a little speech to his company at roll call this morning. He told them that he had not done his duty by them, acknowledged his faults, and promised, with God’s help, to try and do better in the future, and prayed them to help and support him in his endeavor…this was a good beginning for Wash. I wonder if he will keep it up. Time will show. I doubt it.” On 2nd October 1862 Gnl. Pendleton had written that Nelson was "unsurpassed. He has earned high eulogiums on the battle-field, and yet he is not, in some respects, adapted to take care of a battery...[he] would make a splendid aide or cavalry officer, and as such is earnestly recommended." He was assigned to Pendleton’s own staff after the battery was disbanded on 4th or 5th October 1862. On the latter date Pvt. Berkeley noted that “Wash Nelson came back from Gen. Pendleton’s headquarters very well satisfied, having been promised a very soft place on the General’s staff. He does not seem to care one cent as to what becomes of his men.” Commended for performance at Fredericksburg. Captain & A.A.I.G. to Pendleton: 14th January 1863. Inspector of batteries for the 1st Corps & Reserve Artillery. Captured at Millwood on 26th October 1863. One of "The Immortal 600". Took the oath in Fort Delaware on 12th June 1865. Married Mary Scollay in October 1865, and had 11 children. Entered the Theological Seminary of Va. in 1871, and was ordained in 1875. Episcopal clergyman in Lexington, Wytheville & Warrenton, Va. Died on 30th May 1903. Buried in the City Cemetery in Warrenton.
[Joslyn, Biographical Roster of the Immortal 600, pp.194-5; Runge, Four Years In The Confederate Artillery, pp.23-24, 30-31; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.230. The Virginia Historical Society holds the following: “Nelson, George Washington, Memoir, 1866. 1 item. Mss5:1 N3360:1. Memoir written by George Washington Nelson ([1840–1903] formerly of the Hanover Light Artillery Battery) regarding his experiences as a prisoner of war at Camp Chase and Johnson's Island, Ohio, Point Lookout, Md., Fort Delaware, Del., Morris Island, S.C., and Fort Pulaski, Ga. A typescript copy of the memoir is filed with the original.”]
Born in Walton Co., Ga., on 18th March 1839. Son of William Branch Nunnally & Mary Hale Talbot. Cadet at West Point when war began. Captain, Co.H, 11th Ga. Inf.: 3rd July 1861. Arrived at Manassas on 22nd July 1861: “Here I saw my first bloody battle field, here it was I heard the first groans of the wounded and dying; it was here I deeply felt the horrors of this terrible war, it was here I resolved that I should fight them as long as I could raise an arm.” Was sick later that summer: “at the latter part of our stay at this place I had my first sickness. I learned an important lesson here…how well it is to be blessed with health and how bad it is to be sick [far] from home. I was prostrated four weeks with fever.” On 11th December 1861 one of his men wrote: “When wee were eating I dident hav bread enough to do us all. Captin Nunnally Went off and got bread and devided it with me…What he has, apples, cakes or anything, he devids with me. He is as fine a man as ever lived.” Writing of the first winter of the war, Nunnally recalled: “Many times do I recur to our old winter quarters as the spot where my most happy moments of my soldiering life were spent. But lo! our stay at this place was of but short duration.” The same company member quoted above wrote of him in March 1862: "Wee hadnt Got fair [far] from our old camps befor Captin Nunnally bought a Wagon and splendid teem and had our knapsacks hawled…Wee had the best Captin in sirvis. He is kind to us and favours us all he can." Nunnally wrote that, during the Peninsula Campaign, “I experienced the hardest service that I have ever seen since I have been in the army. We were on duty every other day and sometimes every day in the trenches up to our knees in mud, frequently without a morsel to eat for thirty-six hours, had but little sleep, occasionally shot at by the enemy. With no blankets for several days, the weather quite cool, allowed no fires…” At Malvern Hill, “if you could have but heard the groans of the wounded and dying that night you would have sworn eternal vengeance against the whole Yankee tribe. In the action I had two killed and six wounded. I was not touched myself during the engagements.” Killed at the Devil’s Den at Gettysburg on 2nd July 1863. A monument was erected to his memory in 1907.
[Austin, Georgia Boys With Stonewall Jackson, pp. x, 8, 20-21, 22, 29, 34, 42.]
Born at Beavers Hill, near Dunbrooke, Essex Co., Va., on 1st April 1832. Son of Robert Gaines Haile & Elizabeth Buckner Jones. Married Mary Susan Burke on 12th June 1856, and had three children. He helped to manage the family plantation. Sgt., Co.F, 55th Va Inf.: 21st May 1861. Elected 2nd Lieut. on 17th July 1861. On 10th May 1862 he wrote: “I am sick of this kind of life, had rather fight and end it at once. I never was so home sick before in my life, and what makes it worst, don’t see any prospect of getting home for a long time to come.” On 3rd June he wrote: “Let us hope for the best, if it should be my fate to fall it will be in defence of that which every man should be willing to fight and die for if necessary. It makes my blood boil the very thought of these negro loveing Yankees comeing here to subjugate us as their slaves. It is high time for every man in the South to make up his mind to fight them to the bitter end.” On 10th June 1862 he described meeting some of the enemy under a flag of truce: “I told them also I wished the fight would take place tomorrow so shure I was that we are going to give them one of the worst thrashings that they have ever gotten. They said if we did they could raise another army as large as the one they now have without any difficulty. I told them yes of Irish and Dutch. Asked them how was General Jackson getting on, they did not like that subject one bit.” Promoted 1st Lieut. on 24th June 1862. Mortally wounded at Frayser's Farm on 30th June 1862 - the wound paralyzing him below the chest; died in Richmond on 26th July. Had been promoted Captain in the interim. Left a widow, Mollie, and two small girls.
[O’Sullivan, 55th Virginia Infantry, p.129; Tombes, When The Peaches Get Ripe, pp.xi, 22, 34, 44.]
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