Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/638

Carolina troops, and served in the ranks during the battles on the Virginia peninsula between Lee and McClellan, serving in all, as a private, about ten months, and was then detailed as one of the twelve men from the Thirteenth regiment, who, with twelve from the Third Louisiana, constituted the beginning of the Independent signal corps. By special act of Congress the membership was afterward increased to 300. He served in this line of duty until the end of the war, rendering valuable aid to the army, and witnessing all the stirring scenes which marked the passing from stern reality to history of the grand old army of Northern Virginia. At Appomattox he was one of the 35 of the original 300 signal men who remained on duty, these being from the States of North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana. His first service was at Newport News, where he witnessed the naval combat between the Merrimac and the Federal fleet, and his last service was at Appomattox, guarding prisoners who were captured on the retreat from Peters burg. Three brothers of Mr. Lee were in the Confederate service. Pollock B., a lawyer in Memphis prior to the war, became a lieutenant in a Tennessee regiment, and was soon detailed as aide-de-camp to General Zollicoffer, whom he accompanied to the fatal field of Fishing Creek. Subsequently he was one of the most trusted aides of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and of all the commanders of the army of Tennessee, and at one time was assistant adjutant-general of the army with the rank of colonel. His death occurred at Memphis in 1867, and he was buried in Elmwood cemetery. He was much loved and widely known in the West, at one time being assistant adjutant- general of the army of Tennessee, as was evidenced by a sword presented him by the ladies of Memphis, Tenn. His last official act in the army was the turning over to the enemy, by order of General Johnston, his native town. Junius M. Lee served with the Hornet’s Nest Riflemen, and later with the Fifth North Carolina cavalry, and died in 1897. Francis Marion Lee, a younger brother, was a member of the Fifth cavalry, and died in 1864 from pneumonia, contracted during Gen. Wade Hampton s famous cattle raid. The subject of this sketch has given his attention entirely to the management of his extensive land possessions since the war, and is now one of the county’s most