Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/699

Lynchburg, but on his application was given command of the troops at that post. In February, 1863, he was able to rejoin the Fourth regiment, and held command, in the absence of Colonel Wickham, until March 20th, when he was again given command of the Second North Carolina. The gallant Col. Sol Williams, the regular commander, returned to his men on June 8th, but on the next day, in the battle of Brandy Station, lost his life, and Payne continued to lead the regiment, and in that capacity took part in Stuart's Pennsylvania raid. When Stuart was confronted by Kilpatrick, Payne with his regiment was thrown against the rear of Farnsworth's brigade at Hanover, Pa. So gallant was the charge that one Federal regiment was scattered, and Kilpatrick's command might have been routed had adequate support been at hand. But here Colonel Payne's horse was killed under him, and he himself, with a severe saber cut in the side, again fell into the hands of the enemy. After a long imprisonment at Johnson's island, Ohio, he was exchanged, and being promoted brigadier-general, commanded a brigade of three cavalry regiments, the Fifth, Sixth and Fifteenth Virginia, in Early's campaign in the Shenandoah valley, including the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. He was next transferred to Richmond and remained there during the siege, in the final operations commanding a brigade composed of the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Virginia cavalry and Thirty-sixth Virginia battalion, in Munford's division. At the battle of Five Forks, April 1st, he was again badly wounded, and was sent to Richmond to rejoin the army. During the evacuation he failed to reach his corps and took refuge near his old home, where he was captured on the night of Lincoln's assassination. Carried into Washington the next day, he narrowly escaped violence at the hands of the populace, blindly enraged by the terrible crime of the night before. He again suffered prison life at Johnson's island, after the actual close of the war. Since the return of peace he has devoted himself to the practice of law, also serving in the legislature of Virginia in the session of 1879-80. He was married in May, 1852, to Mary Elizabeth Winston Payne, daughter of Col. W. Winter Payne, who represented the Sumter district of Alabama in Congress in 1841-48. Ten children were born to this union, of whom eight survive.