376
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
sliulieil law under Judge Tucker, of Win-
chester, practiced for some years, and then
removed to Louisville, Kentucky. In 1842
ht returned to Virginia and settled in Alex-
ai dria : at various times was a member of
the legislature and of the city council, and
city attorney. He opposed secession, but
c;ist his fortunes with his state when she
left the L'nion. He married .Sarah Gosnell
Vowell, daughter of John C. Vowell, of
.Alexandria. He died May 10, 1877.
Mason, Emily Virginia, daughter of Gen. Thomson Mason, was born in 1815. Dur- ing the civil war she served as military hos- pital nurse. At the close of the war in 1865 she collected and arranged "Southern Poems of the War." For fifteen years she lived in Paris, where her charm of manner and intellectual attainments made her the leader of the American circle. She wrote a life of Gen. Lee.
Washington, Col. John Augustine, born at "Rlakeley," Jefiferson county, Virginia, May 3, 1820, son of John Augustine Wash- ington and Jane Charlotte Blackburn, his wife, daughter of Captain Richard Scott and Judith (Ball) Blackburn. He inher- ited the "Mount Vernon" estate by will of his great uncle, Hon. Bushrod Wash- ington, and resided there until he sold it to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Asso- ciation in i860, and removed to "Wave- land," Fauquier county. He entered the Confederate army as aide-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel, and was killed September 13, 1861, at Cheat Mountain, while scouting. He married, in 1842, Eleanor Love Selden.
Gait, Alexander, born at Norfolk, \'ir- ginia. June 26, 1827, son of Alexander Gait,
and grandson of James Gait, superintend-
ent of the Eastern State Hospital at Wil-
liamsburg. He received his literary edu-
cation in his native city. He early de-
veloped a taste and aptitude for art, and
went to Italy to prepare as a sculptor, and
made rapid progress, soon opening his own
studio in Florence, where much of his work
\'. as jierformed. He made frequent visits
home, and in 1854, while in \'irginia, was
commissioned by the legislature to make a
siatue of Thomas Jefferson for the Univer-
sity of Virginia. His creation, carved in his
studio in Florence, was of surpassing beauty
and dignity, and was placed in the rotunda
of the library of the university shortly be-
fore the beginning of the civil war. At the
time of the great fire of October 27, 1895,
the statue was saved by being carried out
b\ a number of the professors and students,
and was restored to its proper place in the
new library building. Air. Gait returned
home about the time the war began and took
up his residence in Richmond, where he
opened a studio. He was a hearty supporter
ci the Confederacy and he rendered valuable
aid to the new government in the engineer-
ing department. He came to an untimely
end, dying at the early age of thirty-six
years, from smallpox contracted on a visit
to Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's camp to pre-
pare for making a statue of that great com-
mander. Among his best known works,
other than that of Thomas Jefiferson, previ-
ously mentioned, is a bust of Chief Justice
Rutledge. in the United States supreme
court room in Washington City ; and the
ideal figures of "The Spirit of the South,"
"Hope," ".Aurora," "Sappho," "Psyche" and
"Bacchante."
