Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1040

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

William T. Jones, a gallant soldier of the Nineteenth Virginia regiment, Pickett's old brigade, was born at Charlottesville, Va., October 27, 1839. He enlisted in Company A, Nineteenth Virginia infantry, about July 18, 1861, and on the 21st was under fire at the first battle of Manassas. The succeeding fall and winter he passed with his regiment mainly at Centreville and Fairfax Court House, and, early in 1862, was transferred to the peninsula, where he did picket duty about Yorktown. After the evacuation of that post he took part in the battle of Williamsburg, May S, 1862, and received a terrible wound in the head, a ball entering the left side of his face and passing out to the right of his right eye, shattering all the bones of the face in its course. He was left on the field, and cared for in the Federal hospital until he could be removed to Washington, where he lay in hospital for some time, afterward being held as a prisoner of war at the Old Capitol prison and Fort Delaware. He was one of the first prisoners exchanged under the cartel, when about five thousand prisoners were brought to Richmond. He then returned to his home, with an honorable discharge. In October, 1876, he had the additional misfortune of a fall from a scaffolding which broke both his legs and caused the amputation of one of them. He is an influential and highly respected citizen; held the office of collector for the town, and after its incorporation as a city was made treasurer, an office he yet holds. In John Bowie Strange camp, Confederate Veterans, he holds the rank of paymaster.

James Dawley Jordan, of Smithfield, who rendered devoted service in his youth to the Confederate cause, was born in Isle of Wight county, October 30, 1845, the son of Col. Josiah W. Jordan, and Fanny Dawley, his wife. Colonel Jordan, born September 1, 1801, died January 8, 1852, was the son of William and Martha Jordan, and the grandson of John Jordan, who was born December 17, 1776, and died January 6, 1814. Colonel Jordan had six sons and four daughters. One of the sons was too young during the war to enter the service in any capacity, but the other five were given cheerfully to the cause of Southern independence. Alonzo B., the oldest, served as captain of the Newtown Rifles, a company of the Third Virginia infantry; Walter B. was in the Petersburg cavalry, Thirteenth Virginia cavalry regiment; Opie D. was a member of the Old Dominion Guard, Third Virginia infantry, and later of the signal corps; and Josiah W. served in the Portsmouth light artillery and the Petersburg cavalry of the Thirteenth Virginia cavalry regiment. James Dawley Jordan, next younger, made his home at Petersburg in 1861, and was employed as a drug clerk until 1863, when, being seventeen years of age, he became a member of the Petersburg Juniors, a boy company, organized as a home guard. Soon afterward he enlisted in the signal corps, and served in that capacity until the close of the war, being stationed on the Appomattox river and with the army about Petersburg, and finally surrendering at Appomattox. After the conclusion of hostilities he engaged in farming in his native county. In 1891 he was elected secretary and business manager of the Smithfield alliance company, a stock organization formed by the farmers of Isle of Wight county, and since then he has managed their business at Smithfield. In 1893 he was elected mayor of Smith-