VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
651
nel Jordan was complimented in a personal
letter and assigned as adjutant-general of
the forces which were thereupon ordered to
assemble there. On June 3rd General Beau-
regard took command and on July 21st the
first battle of Manassas or Bull Run was
fought. After the battle Colonel Jordan
suggested to General Beauregard that the
I-"ederal surgeons be released without parole
to which General Beauregard acceded, this
being the first time in war that an enemy's
surgeons were thus treated as non-combat-
ants. During the Shiloh and Corinth cam-
paigns Colonel Jordan was the adjutant-
general of the Confederate army, and then
promoted a brigadier-general.
In 1869 General Jordan consented to direct the revolutionary forces of Cuba and was commissioned by the Cuban govern- ment commander-in-chief. The odds against him in that campaign are now well known. Spain valued his services against her one hundred thousand dollars which she placed upon his head. General Beauregard in his history pronounced General Thomas Jordan as one of the ablest military organizers liv- ing. After the civil war and prior to his services in Cuba, General Jordan had been for a time editor of the "Memphis Appeal." After his return from Cuba to New York he founded the "Financial and Mining Rec- ord," and was recognized as an authority on the silver question. General Thomas Jor- dan was born 1819 in Luray, Virginia, died in New York City, 1895.
Children of Walter (2j and Lavinia Cath- erine (Jordan) Coles: i. Walter (3), born July 25, 1863; manager of the Coles Hill farm; married Miss Wooding, of Virginia, and has a son, Walter (4). 2. Russell Jor- dan, born December 31, 1865, for twenty- five years identified with the tobacco trade of Danville, Virginia. 3. Agnes Cabell, born April 17, 1868; married Edward B. Ambler, of Monroe, Virginia. 4. Lettice Carring- ton. born September 17, 1870, died in 1882, aged twelve years. 5. Harry Carrington, born February 26, 1873 ; living in New York City, connected with the United States civil service; married Miss Marshall, of Fau- quier county, Virginia, a great-granddaugh- ter of Chief Justice Marshall. 6. Thomas Jordan, of whom further.
Thomas Jordan Coles, youngest of the six children of Walter (2) and Lavinia Cather- ine (Jordan) Coles, was born at Coles Hill.
Pittsylvania county, Virginia, July 5, 1875.
He attended the local schools until he was
eleven years of age, then entered the Ken-
more University High School at Amherst
Court House, Virginia. He was afterward
successively a student at Greenwood
School, Greenwood, Virginia, Keswick
School for Boys, Cobham, Albemarle
county, Virginia, and Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York, in the last-named institu-
tion taking a teacher's course, after entering
the pedagogical profession. He began this
career when he was eighteen years of age
and continued therein until his thirtieth
year, in that period holding positions as
principal in several of the leading academies
of the state. For the three following years
ht engaged in the insurance business, re-
turning to Chatham in 1907 and establish-
ing in that line, in December, 1909, being
appointed by the court treasurer of Pitt-
sylvania county, the largest county in the
state, assuming the duties of the office on
January i, 1910. At the election of 1912 he
was returned to this position without oppo-
sition, his present term expiring in igib.
Immediately after returning to Chatham,
Mr. Coles was elected clerk of the local
school board, and for the past six years he
has been a vestryman of the Episcopal
church at that place. His fraternal societies
are the Masonic order, Pittsylvania Lodge,
No. 24, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons,
Royal Arch Chapter, No. 56; Dove Com-
m.andery. No. 7, Knights Templar ; Acca
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine ; the Modern Woodmen
of America, No. 11641 ; the Junior Order of
Unhed American Mechanics, No. 117; the
lienevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
\o. 22"], Danville, Virginia. In the admin-
istration of the finances of the county he
has displayed careful ability and systematic
thoroughness that have gained him much
favorable mention, and among the public
servants of Pittsylvania county there is
none who holds the respect and confidence
of its citizens to a greater degree than does
Mr. Coles. He is backed by generations of
men noted in county, state and nation, men
whose deeds are written boldly across the
history of the country, whose memory he
reverences and to whom no shame can be
l>rought through him. Mr. Coles is a busy
man of affairs, universally well-regarded,
popular because of a pleasing personality,
