Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1292

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

to Lynchburg he engaged in wood manufacture, and in 1872 was appointed inspector of lumber at Lynchburg by Gov. James L. Kemper. He held this office two years and then resumed the manufacture of building material. From 1879 to 1883 his business was in the feed trade, and at the latter date he was appointed to the office of chief of the fire department. In 1887 he was married to Mary A. Sanderson, of New Kent county, Va. Mr. Thurman's family contributed nobly to the Confederate cause. His brother, Powhatan Thurman, born in Lynchburg in 1841, enlisted in April, 1861, in the Eleventh Virginia infantry, served eighteen months, detailed in the quartermaster's department, and re-enlisted in the Second cavalry in March, 1864, and served until the close of the war. He died in Lynchburg in 1882. Another brother, Samuel Thurman, enlisted in the summer of 1864 in Booker's reserve regiment, and took part in the battle at High Bridge. He is now living at Jefferson, Tex. Two other brothers, Charles and Edwin Randolph Thurman, were too young to render any service, beyond taking charge of their five sisters, while the older ones were at the front. The father of these young soldiers, Samuel B. Thurman, who died in 1892 at the age of seventy-seven years, served in the home guard at Lynchburg during the war. Richard Thurman, the great-grandfather of Mr. Thurman, was long known as "Uncle" Thurman at Lynchburg. He was a devout member of the Methodist church, greatly aiding in its extension by his blameless life and example, and the warmth with which he participated in religious services, as well as by that tender love of all men that characterized his whole life. When a young man he served on the staff of General Washington, and was accorded the privilege and honor of residing for some time, during the war of the Revolution, with Washington and Lafayette, in that small stone building in the city of Richmond, now so much reverenced on account of its former distinguished inmates. When General Lafayette revisited Richmond in 1825, "Uncle" Thurman called upon him, attired in the same clothes he had worn at the stone house. The general recognized him at once, received him with open arms, and shed tears of emotion as he recalled the hardships of the Revolutionary struggle.

Stephen Davis Timberlake, commander in 1896-97 of Stonewall Jackson camp, No. 25, U. C. V., at Staunton, Va., was born near Winchester, Frederick county, February 20, 1846. He is the son of Stephen D. and Frances A. Timberlake, and is descended from a long lineage in Virginia with a worthy record. His grandfather, Lieut. Henry Timberlake, and two of his brothers, served in the war of the Revolution. He was yet in school when Virginia became the theater of war in 1861, but after he had reached his sixteenth year he enlisted as a private in Company B of the Twelfth Virginia cavalry, the command of the gallant Col. Turner Ashby, and served with this regiment in nearly all the battles of the army of Northern Virginia, from April, 1862, until the close of the war. Soon after his enlistment he participated in Jackson's campaign in the valley, fighting at Winchester, Cross Keys and Port Republic. In the Wilderness fight he was at the front with his regiment, and in other great battles and in many minor affairs did his duty bravely, but fortunately and remarkably escaped without a scratch from the enemy's bullets, until the latter