War Records, "instantly Captain Martin seized the flag, and with words of encouragement called on all to follow. The noble, manly conduct of Captain Martin was such as to challenge the admiration of all." In the final charge in the evening, Colonel Tomlin reported, "The different members of our regiment were formed into one company, under command of Captain Martin, whose gallantry was not exceeded by any one in that memorable battle." The regiment lost 30 killed and wounded out of 128 in action. For a time thereafter Captain Martin was in command of the regiment. He had also been in command at the battle of Gaines' Mill. In the memorable charge of Pickett's division at Gettysburg he led the advance of his regiment. Fitzhugh Lee, in his life of Gen. R. E. Lee, has written: "It is said that when the head of what had been so grand an attack got within a few yards of the second defensive line it consisted of Armistead, his lieutenant, Colonel Martin, and five men. With the destruction of the head the body perished, and one-half of those who crossed the road and followed Armistead were killed." At this forefront of the tide of Confederate valor Colonel Martin fell, dangerously wounded, within the Federal lines. He lay in the field hospital there three months, and was afterward at the Baltimore hospital until his partial recovery, when he was held as a prisoner of war at Fort McHenry and Point Lookout until May, 1864. Upon being exchanged two months later he was assigned, on account of his wounds, to detached duty, and was sent to South Carolina by the secretary of war to select a site for a military prison. Returning to Virginia in December, in January, 1865, he was put in command of a body of reserves near Rappahannock. After his parole at Bowling Green in June, 1865, he resumed his professional career at Chatham, and remained there until April, 1895, when he removed to Lynchburg. Dr. Martin has been a member of the board of visitors of the university of Virginia, has served since 1893 as president of the State board of health, and as president of the board of medical examiners for Virginia. He was married in 1867 to Ellen, daughter of James Johnson, and they have four sons and two daughters. The ancestry of Dr. Martin has figured in every military struggle in which the State has been intimately interested. His father, Dr. Chesley Martin, born in 1808, was not regularly enlisted in the Confederate service, but he took part in the battles of Big Bethel and Malvern Hill, and being assigned to detail duty with the rank of captain, by Governor Smith, served throughout the war. His grandfather, William Martin, served in the war of 1812, with the rank of sergeant; and his great-grandfather Martin was a soldier of the Revolution. He was president of State medical society in 1886-87.
Thomas Staples Martin, United States senator from Virginia, was born in Albemarle county, July 29, 1847, at the town of Scottsville. In 1853 his parents removed to the country, near that town, where Mr. Martin has resided since that date. He was educated at the Virginia military institute, where he was a cadet from March 1, 1864, to April 9, 1865, and at the university of Virginia, where he was a student during two sessions. Being less than fourteen years of age he did not enlist in the Confederate army during the period of the war, but, while a cadet at the Virginia mili-
