Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1223

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
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chell's Shop, May 9, 1864, he was captured, and during the next three months he was confined at Point Lookout. Here, at the time of Early's raid on Washington, a plan was formed under the leadership of Eddy, a Texan, to free the 14,000 prisoners and co-operate with Early in the capture of Washington. Dr. Robinson was one of the twenty men selected by Eddy, each to select twenty more, to form a party to attack the guard; but the plan was betrayed by some one and the guard increased so that their hopes were crushed. His next place of confinement was Elmira, N. Y., whence he escaped by bribing a guard with the proceeds of a pail of tobacco sent him from Virginia, to put his name among those who on account of residence in neutral States, or wounds, were given parole. Putting his arm in a sling, he managed to pass, and finally reached Richmond in time to rejoin his regiment and surrender at Appomattox. In 1867 he was graduated in medicine at the university of Virginia, and at once began the practice at Danville, subsequently taking post-graduate courses at the college of physicians and surgeons, Baltimore and in New York. As a general practitioner as well as a specialist in surgery and gynecology he is well known throughout the State. He is an ex-president of the State and local medical societies, has a membership in various national and general professional organizations, and is surgeon of the Atlantic & Danville, and consulting surgeon of the Southern railroad. In 1872 he was married to Juliet L. Robinson, who died in 1895, leaving him five children.

Lieutenant William P. Robinson, of Danville, Va., a gallant soldier of the Confederacy, was born in Chesterfield county, June 5, 1842, the son of William and Amanda A. (Bowles) Robinson. As a student in the Virginia military institute during the exciting period following the election of President Lincoln, he was an earnest advocate of Virginian independence, and as soon as he was graduated in 1861, he entered the military service. For the first year he was stationed at Richmond as a drillmaster, and he then entered the Ringgold battery, of Danville, with which he served in the rank of first lieutenant, until the end. Among the engagements in which he participated were the fight at Zollicoffer, Tenn., the battle of Cloyd's Mountain, May, 1864, in which he commanded one gun of the battery and withdrew it safely from the field, and the long continued fighting on the Petersburg lines. At the battle of the Crater he was in command of two guns and took a conspicuous part in the defeat of the Federal onset. At Appomattox he was in command of his battery on duty as a company of infantry, and participated in the fighting on the night before the surrender. Since those days Lieutenant Robinson has been a resident of Danville and prominent as a business man. He has served as a magistrate and councilman, and is an honored member of Cabell-Graves camp. October 4, 1871, he was married to Blanche R. Sydnor, of Nottoway county, and they have four sons, each of whom has been given a military education.

Theodore F. Rogers, of Norfolk, prominent in the real estate business of that city, was born within its limits on July 4, 1844, the son of John Randolph and Mary Ann Rogers. At the outbreak of the war in 1861 he was a student in the Norfolk military academy, where he had been enrolled for three years. He was consequently