Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Fauntleroy, Thomas Turner

FAUNTLEROY, Thomas Turner, soldier, b. in Richmond county, Va., 6 Oct., 1796; d. in Leesburg, Va., 12 Sept., 1883. He was commissioned a major of dragoons in the regular army, and served in the Seminole war. In September, 1845, he was detached from Gen. Taylor's army to hold in check the Indians on the frontier of Texas. From this duty he was ordered to join Gen. Taylor, and subsequently, in Mexico, he commanded the cavalry of Gen. Scott's army. In 1849 he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 1st dragoons, and commanded the troops on frontier duty in Texas. In 1850 he was promoted colonel. In the winter of 1854-'5 he conducted a campaign against the hostile Indian tribes of the Rocky mountains, and in 1858 he made another mid-winter campaign against the Indians in New Mexico. In May, 1861, he entered the Confederate service. He was commissioned a brigadier-general by the convention of Virginia, and placed in command of Richmond and its defences. But, after the organization of the Confederate government, it refused to confirm his commission, although he ranked all the officers but one that had resigned from the U. S. army to serve the Confederacy. — His son, Archibald Magill, physician, b. in Warrenton, Va., 8 July, 1837; d. in Staunton, Va., 19 June, 1886, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1856, and in 1857 entered the U. S. army as assistant surgeon; but he and his brother, a lieutenant in the navy, resigned at the same time with their father. He became a surgeon in the Confederate army, and was president of the board for the admission of surgeons, and chief officer on the medical staff of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and served with him until the battle of Seven Pines. He was then ordered to build and organize the hospitals at Danville, Va., and afterward had charge of the military hospital at Staunton, Va., until the war ended. He remained and practised at Staunton after the war, and was for several years superintendent of the lunatic asylum at that place. His contributions to medical literature include papers on bromide of potassium, chloral hydrate, the use of chloroform in obstetrical practice, and a “Report upon Advance in Therapeutics,” which was printed in the “Transactions” of the Virginia medical society. — Another son, Thomas T., became judge of the Virginia supreme court of appeals. — Their sister, Mary Thurston, married Surgeon-General Barnes, of the U. S. army.