the year 1842. When a youth of nineteen years, he enlisted in April, 1861, with one of the companies of Richmond Howitzers and served faithfully and gallantly with that command until the last shot was fired. Soon after the battle of Cold Harbor his efficiency and intrepid conduct won for him promotion to the rank of junior first lieutenant. After being paroled at Richmond, after the surrender, he returned to the duties of private life. He is held in high esteem by his former comrades of the army of Northern Virginia.
William H. McCarthy, a citizen of Richmond, highly esteemed for his worth as a man and his honorable service in the army of Northern Virginia, was born in that city in the year 1842. He was there reared and educated and, in April, 1861, as soon as the State called her loyal sons to her defense, he enlisted as a private in the Second Richmond Howitzers. With this famous artillery command he served throughout the entire war, winning promotion to the rank of corporal. He took part in the first repulse of the Federal invaders at Big Bethel, on the peninsula, and subsequently participated in all the important actions of his command, which won its laurels upon some of the most famous and desperately contested battlefields of the war. He fought with honor at Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Petersburg, Sailor's Creek, and finally at Appomattox, where he was surrendered and paroled with the army whose glory and hardships he had so long shared. At the close of this devoted and highly meritorious service, he returned to the duties of civil life, and since then has rounded out a life so honorably begun by a successful business career. He still cherishes the old army, and the cause for which it fought, and is a valued member of the R. E. Lee camp, Confederate Veterans, and of the Howitzer association.
Lieutenant Robert McChesney, a member of a prominent family of Rockbridge county, was one of the first martyrs of the war and perhaps the first Virginia soldier killed in combat. He was a native of Brownsburg, and, previous to secession, was a lieutenant of the cavalry company of Capt. J. R. McNutt, attached to the One Hundredth and Forty-fourth Virginia militia regiment. His company was one of the first called into service, in 1861, and was sent across the mountains to operate with General Garnett's command in Barbour and Tucker counties. He was ordered, on June 29th, with a scouting party of ten men, into Tucker county, to break up an election to be held under Federal protection, but, when near his destination, received such advices of the strength of the enemy as to persuade him to turn back. At this moment the Yankees developed from an ambush in his rear and opened fire. Lieutenant McChesney gallantly determined to cut his way out and all of his party but two escaped. He was, unfortunately, killed upon the spot. His body was tenderly cared for by the friends of the Confederacy in that region, and, after the close of hostilities. Colonel Irvine, who commanded the Federal party, sent the dead hero's sword and personal effects to his brother, J. Z. McChesney, with a letter expressing his admiration of the bravery of his former enemy. He was twenty-nine years old when he fell and had already manifested soldierly qualities which promised a brilliant
