Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1278

This page has been validated.
1198
CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, when he rejoined his company and remained with it until the close of the war. His service was begun with participation in the Peninsular battles of Dam Nos. 1 and 2, and Williamsburg. On the picket line before the battle of Seven Pines he was distinguished for gallantry, and he fought through the two days of Seven Pines and the Seven Days' struggle which followed to the discomfiture of McClellan's army. Afterward he was in action at Shepherdstown, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Trevilian's, Yellow Tavern, Reams' Station. At the time of the surrender at Appomattox he had charge of the picket line protecting the flank of Gen. Lindsay Walker's brigade, guarding the retreat of the artillery of the army. He surrendered at Columbia, Va., in June, 1865. After this he engaged in farming for a few years, in Hanover and then in Cumberland county, then conducted a store in Henrico county three years. Subsequently he established a mail service on the James river and Kanawha canal, and commanded the packet boat Nellie between Columbia and Richmond. After four years of this occupation the building of a railroad superseded his mail line, and he became a baggage master and later a conductor on the Richmond & Allegheny railroad. In 1886 he entered the hotel business, first in the Irvine hotel at Lexington and then as manager of the Natural Bridge hotel. In 1889 he made his home at Buena Vista, where he has since had charge alternately of the Colonnade and Buena Vista hotels. He is also prominently interested in the business and the development of the town, has served two terms as president of the city council, and is a director in the bank and in land companies.

William Henry Tallman, of Newport News, Va., served with distinction during the Confederate war in intimate relations with Generals Magruder, Johnston and Lee, and as a scout passed through an adventurous and interesting career. He was born in Charles City county December 11, 1842, the son of William H. and Elizabeth (Roane) Tallman, both of English descent, and was reared upon the farm of his parents. His education was obtained at the Lynchburg military academy and at Randolph-Macon college, which latter institution he left in the spring of 1861 to enter the military service of the State and the Confederacy. He was offered the rank of lieutenant in an infantry company formed in his native county, but declined this, preferring to follow the famous admonition of Gen. "Jeb" Stuart, to "jine the cavalry!" For about eight months he served with a cavalry company in the rank of corporal, until General Magruder, then in command on the peninsula of Virginia, detailed him for duty in command of his bodyguard and couriers. The energy and dashing qualities which had secured him this mark of distinction made him highly satisfactory in this position, and led to his being retained in the same duty under Gen. J. E. Johnston, who soon succeeded to the command of the forces gathered to resist the advance of McClellan. He continued in command of Johnston's bodyguard until the general was wounded at Seven Pines, and gave place to Gen. R. E. Lee, with whom Tallman performed the same duties through the Seven Days' battles. Having been in active service through all the battles on the peninsula, and worn by the peril and excitement of this arduous campaign, he fell sick at this time, and was obliged to