Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/59

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UNDER THE CONFEDERACY


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government to conscript the citizens of any state, carried out logically there could be no general government ; upon the fall of the Confederacy, Mr. Seddon retired from pub- lic life, and died in Goochland county, \"ir- ginia, August 19, 1880.

Smith, William (q. v.), member of first regular Confederate congress.

Staples, Waller R. (q. v.), member of first and second Confederate congresses.

Tyler, John (q. v.), member of the provi- sional and first Confederate congresses.

Whitfield, Robert H., representative in second congress.

Wickham, Williams Carter, born in Rich- mond, Virginia, September 21, 1820, son of William Fanning and Anne (Carter) Wick- ham, grandson of John Wickham, the dis- tinguished lawyer who defended Aaron Burr, and a descendant of Robert Carter, and of Gen. Thomas Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and com- mander of the Virginia forces at Yorktown ; educated in the private schools of Rich- mond, and the University of Virginia, where he studied law ; after graduation he returned to his father's estate in Hanover county, Virginia, where he established himself as a farmer; nominated and elected as a Whig candidate to the Virginia house of delegates and the state senate, of which he was a member for many years ; elected to the secession convention, where he opposed secession, but on the outbreak of the civil war formed a cavalry company and became the captain of the Hanover troop ; was suc- cessively promoted to be colonel and briga- dier-general. He was a member of the sec-


ond Confederate congress. After the war was elected president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company, at that time the Virginia Central Railroad Company, and was associated with the same at the time of his death ; served for years as a member of the board of supervisors of his native county, and always took a deep interest in the welfare of his own people; he married Lucy P. Taylor, granddaughter of John Taylor, of Caroline county, Virginia ; three children survived him : Hon. Henry T. Wickham, Mrs. Robert H. Renshaw, Wil- liam F. Wickham ; at the time of his death a monument was erected to him in the city of Richmond by his old soldiers and the employees of the railroad which he man- aged.

MILITARY AND NAVAL OFFICERS. Anderson, Joseph Reid, son of William and Anne Thomas Anderson, was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, February 6, 1813, and graduated from the United States Military Academy, 1836; appointed lieuten- ant in the Third Artillery ; served in engi- neer bureau at Washington ; transferred to corps of engineers as brevetted second lieu- tenant ; assisted in building Fort Pulaski, at entrance of Savannah river. He re- signed September 30, 1837, to accept posi- tion as assistant engineer, state of Virginia ; chief engineer of Valley Turnpike Com- pany, 1838-41 ; subsequently head of firm of Joseph R. Anderson & Company, proprie- tors of Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond. In September, 1861, he was commissioned brigadier-general, C. S. A., and assigned to command of forces at Wilmington, North Carolina. In the spring of 1862 ordered to Fredericksburg in command of brigade ;