Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/901

Ireland, in 1813, was the son of Thomas Doyle, a merchant of county Wexford, a namesake and cousin of Sir Richard Devereux, the Irish philanthropist, who was made a knight of St. Gregory by Pope Pius IX., and belonged to a family distinguished in English and Irish annals since the Norman conquest. He received a classical education in his native land, and coming to America at the age of eighteen years, made his home at Norfolk, engaged in business as a merchant and manufacturer, and married the daughter of Edward Fitzgerald, who held the position of purser in the United States navy. John Edward Doyle entered heartily into the movement for Southern independence and was mainly instrumental in the organization of a company of cavalry known as the Sewell's Point cavalry, and also as Doyle's cavalry, he having been elected captain of the command. With this company he was engaged in guarding the beach from Sewell's Point to Ocean View, during 1861. At the end of his year's service, he resigned on account of advanced age, and the company was assigned to the Second Virginia cavalry. He survived until 1877. His eldest son, Walter Herron, who bore the name of a great-uncle who for half a century was identified with the history of Norfolk as a business man of great wealth and a leader in social life, entered the service in April, 1861, at the age of sixteen years, as a private in the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, which was attached to Garnett's battalion in 1863. He participated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Turkey Ridge, and the fighting on the Petersburg lines, finally being paroled at Appomattox with the rank of sergeant. Another son, John Edward, Jr., when under eighteen years of age, accompanied by his cousin, Thomas H. Doyle, made his way through the Federal lines about Norfolk, and served with the Thirteenth Virginia cavalry, until captured near Appomattox. A brother of the senior Doyle. Walter J. Doyle, served as captain and quartermaster in the Forty-first Virginia regiment, under Colonel (afterward General) Chambliss, to the end of the war. William B. Fitzgerald, a brother of Mrs. Doyle, resigned a lieutenancy in the United States navy and received the same rank in the Confederate States navy, and died in the service. Innumerable cousins and connections of the Doyle family served in the Confederate army, among them Maj. Joseph Van Holt Nash of Atlanta, Ga. Richard Devereux Doyle, sixth of the twelve children of Captain Doyle, was educated in the schools of Norfolk, at Georgetown college, and in the academic and law departments of the university of Virginia, being graduated by the latter in 1871. For the practice of his profession he removed to Indianapolis, and there attained such standing that in 1874, through the influence of the late Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks and others he was appointed assistant attorney-general of Indiana, a position he held for two years. Returning to Norfolk in 1877 he continued the practice of law, in which he has met with marked success. Here as in Indiana he has represented some very important interests before the supreme courts, and with such ability that the result of but one of these actions has been adverse to his clients. He has served the city one term as corporation attorney. In political affairs he has been a prominent worker for the Democratic party, and has